The saga of Samsung’s Tizen operating system continues this week. A report in the Wall Street Journal has updated us on the status of the missing mobile operating system, where anonymous sources indicate a launch event is planned for the next coming weeks. Apparently, Samsung will be holding the get-together in Moscow, suggesting Russia will be the first official market for the Tizen smartphone.
There’s no confirmation of the actual date, but the sources say it’ll be around the same time as an early June developer event in San Francisco. We doubt it’s a coincidence that the third annual Tizen Developer Conference is set for June 2 to June 4, which will be held at the Hilton hotel in Union Square, San Francisco.
In April, we heard Samsung had altered its strategy for Tizen, and that instead of using the new OS to break into new markets, it would launch in places where it was already popular. An IDC report from the end of 2013 showed Samsung commanded a 52 percent market share in Russia, and sold six times as many phones as Apple. Interestingly, Samsung chose Russia to launch its last attempt at promoting its own operating system, known as Bada, which despite being discontinued, still had 9 percent of the market there last year.
The first Tizen device could be a flagship phone, perhaps something like the leaked Z9000 Zeq, and a Samsung executive recently said it would be released before the end of July. This fits in with the news of an early June launch event. However, this wouldn’t be the first time we’ve heard about a Tizen device being prepared for sale, only to have plans cancelled at the last minute. Once the Russian launch has been successfully completed, the WSJ’s sources said India may be next on the list, suggesting Samsung will leave the U.S. and key markets in Europe to Google and Android.
