The past year has been a tough year for Samsung, and 2015 doesn’t seem to be much better.
The company has been unable to meet expected profits from its wide range of android smartphones, facing stiff competition from cheap android handset manufacturers.
Samsung is at a major deciding point. It can either continue to mass produce pricey android phones and see customers drift away to Chinese competition which include Huawei and Xiaomi, or it can differentiate itself by bringing innovation in its own operating system.
Samsung appears to be following the latter option, but the plan may be faltering. Reuters published a big story last week on Samsung developing its own operating system called “Tizen”, which was supposed to have shipped in at least one phone this year.
“Tizen” seems to have hit some developing issues and was unable to be released in 2014. There are unconfirmed rumours that it may release in India soon.
The Tizen project is perhaps Samsung’s approach to steer away from android. The OS developed by Google is free, but comes with preinstalled Google suite applications like Gmail, Google Maps and the Google Play App Store.
Consumers finding no difference in the software are buying android phones from cheaper manufacturers. They make phones with the same specifications at half the price. Chinese startup Xiaomi is the the largest phone manufacturer in China and astoundingly the fourth-largest phone manufacturer in the world. Apple, Samsung and Huawei comprise of the first three largest manufacturers.
At the Mobile World Congress when operated, Tizen is similar in looks and functions like android. However, it does not have Google’s default apps and services. People who are comfortable with their favourite android apps will steer clear; a repeat of what happened with BlackBerry and Windows Phone.
Next year, Tizen may be seen in a few low-end devices. It is the software used in Samsung’s smart watches. 2015 will see Samsung introduce more models of the smart watches.
Tizen is also futuristic in that it can interact with “smart home” appliances. It can control light switches and washing machines.