Samsung’s S5 appeared to poor reviews, but the company might have a comeback up its sleeve in the form of the Tizen phone, poised for release this summer.
It was already shut down last summer, courtesy of the Orange and DoCoMo, but could 2014 be the year of the Tizen? Boasting the company’s own OS, it’s been a challenge to get to the market, even though it seems to be more highly developed than any iOS or Android were when those OSes launched.
This might just be the last-ditch effort for Samsung, however, so the company needs it badly if it wants to dominate the smartphone sector.
A clear winner with its fitness trackers and smart watches, Samsung hasn’t been a solid smartphone contender for quite a while. The firm has a lot riding on the Tizen, since it will have to make up at least 15 percent of all Samsung-shipped smartphones in order to penetrate the market.
So far, few details about the Tizen have been released, but it’s been described as a “high-end model” that will make inroads where other Samsung Android models failed.
A sideshow act?
It’s been reported that Samsung won’t release the Tizen where any Galaxy devices are performing well. But this may change once the Tizen has made its debut.
Samsung’s got a situation now where the company controls the entire technological ecosystem, from hardware to accessories. Everything from software to app development will be under the thumb of Samsung, although that also means any failures must be 100 percent owned by the company.
Little marketing and advertising efforts have been put behind the Tizen (so far), but it’s still a bit early. Tizen is set to be an open-source platform that works with a flourishing app store.
A number of simple tools enable Android apps to turn into Tizen apps, which means it’s an easily adaptable platform. However, waiting until Tizen is on the shelves is probably a smart move before anyone makes any predictions.
After all the hoopla thrown out about the Samsung S5, it might be best for Samsung to keep a low advance profile about this one.
Making the switch
It’ll be an uphill battle to encourage users to switch from Android or iOS, which have dominated the smartphone market for years. This will be especially challenging after the hack that the Samsung S5 made so easy with its failed fingerprint scan.
After a research company revealed how easy it was to break into the Samsung S5, that faux pas put another embarrassing scratch in Samsung’s reputation. Maybe the Tizen will have what it takes to get the company back in customers’ good graces.