Samsung: Tizen will be an operating system for everything

The open-source Tizen operating system, which is jointly developed by Intel Corp., Samsung Electronics and a number of other hardware and software companies, yet has to prove that it can be competitive against Google’s Android and Microsoft Corp.’s Windows. Samsung appears to be a strong believer in the OS. The company envisions that the Tizen can power virtually everything.

So far Tizen Association has released three profiles of the operating system designed for mobile devices, wearable computing devices and in-vehicle entertainment. Eventually, the organization overseeing the OS plans to add profiles for TVs, cameras and even smart home appliances. Essentially, there is a plan for a connected universe of Tizen-based devices from various manufacturers. It is expected that all of the aforementioned products will be able to interact with each other in one way or another.

“Considering there will be more than 50 billion connected devices by 2020, including watches, TVs, cameras, industrial and domestic automations and more, open platforms will continue to play a significant role,” a statement by Samsung reads. “Tizen is the embodiment of open platforms and aims to create an ecosystem for these connected devices.”

Samsung Electronics has already started to build the Tizen universe. The Samsung Z smartphone and the Samsung Gear 2 smart watches are well-known devices based on the Tizen platform. Yet, the gadgets are not first Tizen-powered products by Samsung. In fact, the first products that used the Tizen technology were cameras: the NX300, the NX2000, the NX300M, and the NX30. Samsung also plans to release TVs featuring the Tizen operating system. The company already promises high-quality smart TV apps with various 3D effects and animations.

One of the key challenges for the Tizen platform is the lack of programs. At present the eco-system just cannot offer a library of applications comparable to that of the Apple iOS or the Google Android. Currently Tizen and Unity are developing a special tool that will allow developers to port their existing games for the Android or the iOS (which are based on the Unity graphics engine) to Tizen quickly and with ease.

If you are a developer check out Keynotes from Tizen’s third annual Tizen Developers Conference below. [yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyX57VdJnNI']

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KitGuru Says: Only time will tell how Intel, Samsung and others manage to make Tizen a valuable platform for software developers. The developers need installed base, something that Tizen just cannot offer them right now. People simply do not buy gadgets that do not support their favourite applications…

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