Samsung is betting big on Tizen. The Korean consumer electronics giant believes Tizen will be the perfect OS for all its smart appliances. In 2015, all Samsung smart TVs will run Tizen OS. Other IoT based smart appliances like smart washing machines, Vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, etc. will also be running Tizen. BK Yoon, the company’s CEO, announced last week at the 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that all Samsung devices will be IoT-ready in five years. Many of these devices will be running Tizen. Considering that we sold around 665 million devices last year alone, that could translate into a lot of Tizen. Samsung claims that the reason for choosing Tizen is that it is lighter and has been custom designed to consume less resources. This in turn leads to better battery life – a critical requirement- and smoother performance on consumer electronics, where high end SoC will unnecessarily add to the cost. Samsung has already launched Tizen powered smartwatches and Digital cameras last year. This year, we will be seeing a lot more Tizen on other smart devices. However, Samsung’s Tizen march will not go unbridled. The Challenge At CES 2015, all major TV manufacturers were seen embracing Google’s Android TV. This quick adoption of Google’s Android will pose a huge challenge to Samsung’s big picture. Building a new OS is time consuming and costly affair. Google has spent billions on Android development and doesn’t even charge any licensing fee. This in itself proves how important it is for Google to succeed in these OS wars as the rewards over long term will be amazing. Samsung is in right position to finance and popularize its new OS, but the delay will make matters worse. Samsung has been lingering around Tizen for a long time now. Samsung was supposed to launch 2 Tizen smartphones in Russia last year, but that didn’t happen. If the company already would have introduced Tizen on its smart devices last year, Tizen would have gained a significant market share, in smart devices, by now. If Samsung plays its cards right, it has all the resources of channeling its market share in devices and making Tizen the third most dominant OS very soon. In order to complete ‘the big picture’ it will have to challenge Android on Smartphones as well and that can be considered a nearly impossible task in today’s world. Do you thing Samsung’s Tizen OS stands a chance? or are the OS wars already over, with Google and iOS emerging as winners? Source: Samsung
