Samsung's Tizen Phone Delayed Again

By Kevin Parrish
published

The Wall Street Journal reports that Samsung has once again delayed the release of its first phone running Tizen, the company's own open source mobile platform. The Samsung Z phone was slated to launch in Russia during the Tizen developers conference in Moscow in Q3 2014, but now the company has postponed the release indefinitely as Samsung and third-party developers fatten up the platform's ecosystem.

The Tizen phone was introduced back in June during the Tizen Developer Conference in San Francisco. The device featured a 4.8-inch screen with a 1280 x 720 resolution, a quad-core SoC clocked at 2.3 GHz, 2 GB of memory, 16 GB of internal storage, and a microSD card slot supporting 64 GB of additional storage.

Additional specifications listed a 2.1MP camera on the front, an 8MP camera on the back, a fingerprint sensor, dual-band Wireless N and Bluetooth 4.0 LE connectivity, and NFC. Other features included a heart rate sensor, GPS, a barometer, accelerometer, gyro, a proximity sensor, and more.

Tizen is Samsung's answer to Android, a flexible and open mobile device platform that comes with multiple profiles to suit the devices we use today, including Tizen IVI (in-vehicle infotainment), Tizen Mobile, Tizen TV, and Tizen Wearable. The Tizen platform resides within the Linux Foundation and is directed by a Technical Steering Group.

This is likely the fourth time the Tizen phone has seen a delay. The phone was supposedly ready for a debut right before Mobile World Congress 2014 in February, but France's Orange SA decided not to release the phone because Tizen "is not as mature as we may have expected at this point." NTT DoCoMo was also expected to sell the phone but pulled the plug and shelved its plans.

The Tizen device was originally expected to launch sometime in Q3 2013, but sources claimed that co-CEO JK Shin wanted extra time to "create the best smartphone," thus pushing the launch window into Q4 2013 instead (which never happened). At the time, the delay centered on the hardware, not the ecosystem.

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Kevin Parrish
11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • robochump
    I can almost guarantee the delay is due to potential litigation from Google and Samsung is trying to cover all of its bases before releasing Tizen.
    Reply
  • pbrigido
    If a smart phone doesn't hit the shelves at its intended date, chances are it will be topped shortly by something better. By this point, I'll be surprised if this product is released to the public in its current state.
    Reply
  • dstarr3
    I remember when bar phones and flip phones were the mainstream tech. Every single phone had its own operating system, and they usually all were pretty horrid. And replacing phones was a nightmare because it meant so much effort to migrate your contacts and information. Then Android came along, and everything was so unified and smooth and compatible that you could move from manufacturer to manufacturer, model to model, and the transition would be so simple, and everything would just work.

    Why the hell is Samsung trying to move back to how things used to be?
    Reply
  • canadianvice
    My only question is legitimately.. why?
    What in the heck do they need Tizen for? What do people need it for?
    Reply
  • sykozis
    The purpose of Tizen.....competition and user choice. Both of which are good.
    Google has no cause for litigation unless they can prove Samsung has stolen something from them. Tizen, like Android, is based on Linux, which Google owns no rights to. Anyone is free to develop their own distro, including Samsung.
    Reply
  • Joanle
    Looking forward to "create the best smartphone"!
    Reply
  • canadianvice
    13832687 said:
    The purpose of Tizen.....competition and user choice. Both of which are good.
    Google has no cause for litigation unless they can prove Samsung has stolen something from them. Tizen, like Android, is based on Linux, which Google owns no rights to. Anyone is free to develop their own distro, including Samsung.

    Perhaps, but it seems to me like it's forking simply to try and stand out.
    The simple fact is that while consumer choice is good in theory, the iPhone has categorically proved consumers don't need or want choice as a mass. Fragmentation is murder - it certainly makes my job as a tech salesperson a lot harder.

    "I use facebook and look at cat videos."
    "Good, well, pick one and let me know, because I don't have shit to go on from that."

    Seriously. People don't need choice - they need simplicity, by force if necessary. Apple learned that a while back and look how successful they've been.
    Reply
  • sb1370
    Then Android came along, and everything was so unified and smooth and compatible that you could move from manufacturer to manufacturer, model to model, and the transition would be so simple, and everything would just work.
    It existed years before Android.
    Reply
  • hannibal
    I remember when bar phones and flip phones were the mainstream tech. Every single phone had its own operating system, and they usually all were pretty horrid. And replacing phones was a nightmare because it meant so much effort to migrate your contacts and information. Then Android came along, and everything was so unified and smooth and compatible that you could move from manufacturer to manufacturer, model to model, and the transition would be so simple, and everything would just work.

    Why the hell is Samsung trying to move back to how things used to be?

    Because they want more money by making own market place...
    Tizen is closed market area like iPhones and Windows phones have. It could mean more money to Samsung. If they sell Tizen phones a little bit cheaper than their Android phones, the may succeed, because normal user don't need so many apps. The want to make calls, send text messages, read email, maybe have a map, take selfie pictures and visit in face book, if they are very advanced even use the calendar... And I am not talking about heave users. I am talking about people who almost could manage with normal old fashion phone.
    Is it sensible to put another system in the phone market... maybe not, but if Samsung manages to get customers, it is win win situation to them.
    Reply
  • cptnjarhead
    Oh Samsung, if you had only been smart and purchased palm, or even webos on the cheap, you would have had one of the best mobile OS's ever created, with a tons of mobile patents to back it up that go back farther than googles or apples. Its a shame that palm/webOS was destroyed by HP, hate does not even cover how i feel about HP. rot in hell HP, And dont even get me started on Leo Aopotheker... "taking deep breaths"
    Reply