Samsung is said to be working in collaboration with NTT DoCoMo to launch
a Tizen-based smartphone, according to reports in
Yomiuri Shimbun. This
smartphone is expected to see the light of the day by sometime next
year.
For people who may not be aware,Tizen is a linux-based open
source operating system announced after the demise of MeeGo. Nokia had
launched two MeeGo-based smartphones Nokia N9 and Nokia N950. However,
it later decided to partner with Microsoft, leaving a foundation backed
by Samsung, Intel and others to take over the development of the
operating system, which became Tizen. Tizen is seen as an alternative
operating system to iOS and Android. It is touted to be more open
Android and HTML5-friendly by its makers. In May 2012, Tizen had released its 1.0 Larkspur SDK and source code.
Apart from NTT DoCoMo,
CNET reports that there are other UK-based carriers such as Vodaphone
and France Telecom, which are interested in this Tizen-based smartphone.
Samsung
has always maintained that it is happy to look beyond Android and had
even tried to push its own operating system Bada, which failed to garner
much attention beyond the company itself.
There are also murmers
doing the rounds that Samsung is looking at merging its Bada OS with
Tizen. Given that in there has been absolutely no interest or momentum
on the Bada platform, this could be a possibility. However, there is no
official confirmation available on this front as of now.
Earlier
in 2012, we had also seen another off shoot of MeeGo being spun into
operating system dubbed as Sailfish OS, which too is expected to debut
in 2013. So overall, it looks like we might get some freshness in terms
of operating system in the new year.