Samsung is working on delivering a new operating system for the upcoming revolution in Internet of Things, and it plans to make it open-source.
The company is interested in the IoT future as it plans to provide a large number of smart home appliances, industrial equipment and wearables that could benefit from interconnectivity.
The upcoming OS did not receive a name yet, but we do know that it should assist devices into executing simple tasks instantly, with zero human intervention. To exemplify, the system could instruct your lights to go on before you step into your apartment.
We look forward to hearing more about the development in April, when the Samsung Developer Conference takes place in San Francisco.
"Our new, open-source IoT real-time operating system (RTOS), has a wide scope of features while maintaining a lightweight and efficient footprint," Samsung says.
The biggest advantage of the real time OS is that it executes commands instantly, with no delay whatsoever. The Mars Rover, for instance, runs on VxWorks, a real time OS crafted by Intel.
Opting to deliver the OS as open-source should allow Samsung to increase its footprint in the market, and is key towards generating high levels of interoperability between gadgets connected through IoT.
Samsung learned a lot from its experience with OS fragmentation in mobile devices (read: Android).
The OEM already uses the Tizen OS in smartwatches and smart TVs, and the company could borrow some ideas from it for its future deployment. The company already announced a smart refrigerator at the CES 2016, and it comes with a freezing price tag of $5,000. But the company also has the potential to deliver IoT affordable devices powered by the new OS, such as washing machines, bulbs and ovens.
The OS is rumored to let developers use Samsung's SAMI cloud platform for analytics or security services. This would be useful in the summer, when an air conditioning device could start automatically as it gets temperature data fed to it from a smart meter.
In 2014, Samsung purchased SmartThings, a smart home company. Last year, the firm rolled out a smart home kit that might be the first step towards IoT devices integration throughout the home. With the future open-source real time OS, Samsung could set itself as flag bearer for the IoT home appliances.
