Samsung and Intel took to the Mobile World Congress stage to unveil Tizen, the open-source, Linux-based mobile operating system the two tech giants created. Tizen will appear on smartphones initially, but it was also designed to easily run on tablets, smart TVs and in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) devices. Tizen is designed to offer a consistent user experience from device to device and is a truly open-sourced platform that allows developers to easily create HTML5 applications for any device running Tizen.
Tizen has become the elephant in the room between Samsung and Google. It is believed that Samsung partnered with Intel to create the mobile operating system to lessen its dependence on Google's Android OS, which is found on the majority of Samsung's smartphones. Google is reportedly uneasy about Samsung's meteoric success with Android, and this unveiling doesn't seem like it's going to give Google any reassurance that Samsung will continue to give Android nearly as much attention as it's been used to.
Samsung has already officially announced that it will ship a Tizen OS smartphone this year through a partnership with NTT Docomo. The smartphone is expected to ship in July or August. Samsung and Intel have recently secured a partnership with smartphone maker Huawei, who just joined the steering committee of the Tizen Association. It's not just smartphone makers who have committed to supporting devices running Tizen. European wireless carrier Orange has announced it will begin selling Samsung and Huawei smartphones running Tizen this year. In the U.S., wireless carrier Sprint has also pledged full support for Tizen devices.
Google has every right to be nervous about the future of Samsung and Tizen, since Google makes more money off Samsung than any of its other Android partners. Samsung reportedly sells 40 percent of all devices running Android. Is Tizen just another way of Samsung diversifying its choice of OS on smartphones and tablets, or is it a big hint to Google that it needs Samsung much more than Samsung needs Google?
