The Korean juggernaut has been working on a Tizen smartphone for quite some time now but it still hasn’t launched one for the public. There were countless rumors last year claiming that a launch would take place within the year, but it didn’t. Apparently the company decided to delay the smartphone because it wanted time to make the Tizen platform even better. A new report suggests that Samsung’s first Tizen smartphone is going to be launched in Russia next month.
The report cites an unnamed Samsung official in Korea who has made this claim. The official also reportedly said that Samsung’s plan is to make other Tizen devices that will connect with the smartphone. It is also claimed that the Tizen smartphone’s specifications will be similar to that of the Samsung Galaxy S4, something that has already been rumored before.
The company is actually expected to launch two Tizen smartphones this year, one high-end and one mid-range. The one expected to launch next month would presumably be the high-end model. One might ask why Samsung would choose Russia as the market to launch its first Tizen smartphone. The company’s senior vice president for its Product Strategy Team, Yoon Han-kil, told Reuters in a recent interview that Samsung “will release the phones in a few countries where we can do well.”
Samsung’s Tizen smartphone is then expected to head to Brazil as well as other developing countries after the first stint in Russia. The common belief is that Samsung wants to establish Tizen as a bona fide platform to slowly end its reliance on Google’s Android.