Samsung plans to launch a smartphone running the Tizen operating system in India and Russia in the coming weeks, as per unidentified sources of The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The rollout in Russia would be held in an "Unpacked" event said to be similar to the style Samsung makes use of when unveiling the company's flagship devices. The event will be in time for the developer's conference that backers of Tizen organized in San Francisco this early June.
The release in India, meanwhile seems to have no timeline yet, the WSJ sources said.
When asked for comment by WSJ, Samsung didn't respond, neither does Tizen association that looks after the operating system's development.
Though Tizen smartphones have been a curious subject of rumors in the past. In the fall of 2011, it was already reported that Samsung would release a Tizen device as early as the first quarter of 2012, but it never materialized. In January this year, talks of Tizen smartphone rollout surfaced again but failed to push through last minute. Blame system's carrier partners, such as Telefonica SA for Spain, Orange SA of France and NTT DoCoMo Inc. of Japan, who got cold feet. Regardless, Samsung executives were said to have confirmed that Tizen remains a priority for its company.
Report says it appears that Samsung is changing its course to evade direct competition with Apple and Google in bigger markets such as U.S and is looking at emerging markets of smartphones such as India and Russia, especially with the former which Samsung got a tight hold of its mobile market. The premise is that the usual smartphone consumers in these markets don't have special preference for operating system, what matters is its affordability and phone functionality running Android. A wide range of Samsung devices is being powered by Android.
"My take would be that there is more of an opportunity to drive volume in these markets as they don't depend on operator distribution or subsidies as the primary route to market," director of research Ben Wood at CCS Insight said.
In fact, executive director Neil Mawston at Strategy Analytics has similar analysis that Samsung's new move may prove to be useful.
"India and Russia are relatively open markets, where mobile operators have limited control over distribution channels," Mawston says, making it easier for a company like Samsung to sell Tizen phones. "Breaking into the established markets in Asia, Western Europe and North America, where operators have far more control over smartphone distribution, may prove to be trickier for Samsung," Mawston says.
India is the third largest smartphone market in the world, while Russia stands at the eighth-position. Thing is, Mawston says these countries were many times ignored for major product launches worldwide. In case, Samsung is said to be stepping ahead with the possible Tizen-based smartphone.
