Samsung promises a “flood of devices” powered by Tizen this year

There have been a cacophony of promises, rumors, and speculations regarding Tizen over the last two years or so, but 2015 is gearing up to be the year that we actually get to see Samsung’s homemade operating system. Not only has the South Korean electronics giant launched its first Tizen-powered smartphone, albeit in India, the company has promised that there will be a “flood of devices” powered by Tizen coming out this year.

With Microsoft looking to become a more serious competitor in the market with the mobile version of Windows 10 and Samsung using it’s already established dominance in the mobile market to push its own operating system, 2015 may finally be the year that we see the supremacy of Android and iOS actually challenged. While Android and iOS are both excellent, the mobile market needs more than just two leading operating systems.

One of the biggest advantages that Tizen has over its rivals, according to Samsung, is the fact that it’s much more lightweight and therefore requires less memory and processing power, which in turn enables devices running on Tizen to achieve faster performance while consuming less energy. At least in theory.

Don’t think that smartphones and tablets are Samsung’s only target either, Tizen is going to be powering everything from smart watches, to smart television, to smart cars. Considering how Samsung is already one of the biggest names in the smart television market, if not THE biggest name, you should expect Tizen to be especially successful in that area. Perhaps the biggest focus of Tizen, however, is the Internet of Things, which Samsung clearly sees as the future of consumer electronics.

“Tizen constitutes a large and important part of our Internet of Things (IoT) strategy that encompasses all device categories across the company,” said the company on its website. “BK Yoon, the company’s CEO, announced last week at the 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that all Samsung devices will be IoT-ready in five years. Many of these devices will be running Tizen. Considering that we sold around 665 million devices last year alone, that could translate into a lot of Tizen.”

Samsung also made it clear that this renewed focus on Tizen isn’t indicative of a transition away from Android, which currently powers all of the company’s best selling mobile devices, including the flagship Samsung Galaxy S5.

As Samsung explains on its website: “We want open platforms, and we also remain open to other operating systems. In doing so, we can ensure seamless interoperability and connectivity among the billions of devices being used daily. We also value the relationships we have built with our partners, as these relationships have helped us discover more ways to improve the user experience of our devices, ultimately creating more value for consumers.”