Samsung Z1 Tizen is not a smartphone, everyone is familiar with. In fact Tizen isn’t an OS everyone is familiar with. You see in a market that is blanketed by Android and iOS users, it is difficult for any other operating system to make significant, ask Amazon, Blackberry and Windows. That is unless, they are backed by the world’s foremost handset maker. Here’s where one of the latest entrants into the OS game has a little bit of an edge.
Tizen is a Linux based operating system that has been appropriated and developed by Samsung. Samsung’s first foray into this operating system, which it hopes can chip away at the hegemony of Android, is the Samsung Z1. This particular handset released in early 2015 wasn’t supposed to turn the market on its head. It was however, supposed to be Samsung’s test marketing to prove to itself that an Android alternative, had a market.
Here’s proof that the market is pretty ripe for an Android alternative. Despite being a rather low range, entry level phone, the hyper competitive mobile market, seems to have taken rather well to the Tizen OS, with 1 million units of the Samsung Z1 having sold since its launch. Samsung can consider this proper validation of the presence of a market and a green signal to churn out newer, more powerful models featuring the OS.
Tizen: What’s all the fuss about?
The relative success of the Samsung Z1 has brought much needed attention on the heart of the machine, the Tizen OS. While the OS itself is still in its nascency, the company seemingly has big plans for it. Like all other major OS players, Android, Apple and Windows however, the acceptance of Tizen will depend on the developers willing to make applications for the Tizen OS and the eventual development of a robust marketplace for said apps. This in essence is the true test of the success of a mobile OS.
What better way to attract developers then, than a developers meet. With the Google I/O, Windows Developers Conference and the ‘Woodstock’ of the developer world, the Apple Developers Meet, well out of the way, Samsung has decided to hold a developer meet of its own. And one each in the world’s two largest smartphone markets in the world, China and India. The India chapter of the Samsung Tizen Developers Meet is scheduled for some time in August, at Bangalore. The Chinese city of Shenzhen will play host to the same event in September. Samsung seems to have big plans for the Tizen OS, as it has recently launched a new range of smart TVs with the OS at its heart as well.
Whether or not the Tizen Developers Meet proves to be a success, the fact of the matter is, that Samsung Z1 is one of the first (and we hope not the only) Android alternative out there. Here’s to more such attempts in the future.
