Tizen Delay Apparently Due To Low Carrier Support

If you’ve been following news about Samsung’s Tizen OS, you’ll know that the company has delayed the first Tizen smartphone more than a couple of times. It was initially believed that the first Tizen smartphone will be released in 2013, but that didn’t happen. Recent rumors suggest that we might not see the smartphone until the second half of 2014, even though Samsung is expected to offer a glimpse of Tizen at Mobile World Congress later this month. A new report by The Wall Street Journal suggests that the company has been delaying Tizen due to dwindling carrier support, as quite a few carriers that had previous joined the Tizen Association have slowly departed.

Japan’s NTT DoCoMo was one of the biggest carrier partners for Tizen, it was rumored that the carrier was also pushing Samsung for an early 2014 release of the smartphone. However the carrier dropped its plans recently. Orange of France was also expected to launch the smartphone alongside NTT DoCoMo, but the carrier now believes that Tizen isn’t as “mature” as it had originally anticipated. Even Sprint, the third largest U.S. carrier, gave up on Tizen, saying that it would instead focus on “more immediate product launches.” The report also claims that Samsung has been having trouble attracting large developers, leaving it to support relatively unknown developers through cash incentives and technical guidance. What was initially billed as Samsung’s answer to its reliance upon Google and Android, seems to be on track for a rough launch, if and when that happens.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: MWC, MWC 2014, Samsung, tizen