Samsung has finally released the Samsung Z1 phone that runs on Tizen operating system out of the box. If you keep tabs on what’s happening in the smartphone world, chances are you already know what Samsung is trying to do with Tizen. The Korean company didn’t rise to the top of smartphone manufacturer in the world just by themselves. They used Google’s Android operating system to get there. But now that the company is there, it’s now trying to reduce its dependence on Google’s Android operating system.
Tizen is what Samsung has been working on for more than a year now. The operating system uses simple web technologies to provide a faster user experience on smartphone without needing top notch hardware. The Korean electronic giant plans to get a foothold in developing and emerging markets like India with the low-cost smartphones like Samsung Z1. These phones don’t cost a fortune but can deliver most of the benefits of a smartphone to the user at a minimal price.
However, after repeatedly delaying the launch, the first ever smartphone running Tizen operating system has been launched in India this 14th of January. But the reaction to this new phone with a new operating system hasn’t been very encouraging for Samsung.
Analysts said that Samsung Z1 will struggle to appeal to consumers who are in the market for a low-cost smartphone. This is mainly because of the poor specifications of Samsung Z1.
Priced at little above $90 (Rs. 5,700), the Samsung Z1 features 4-inch WVGA (480×800 pixels) PLS display with dual-core 1.2 GHz processor, 768MB RAM, 4 GB built-in storage with microSD card slot that supports memory cards up to 64 GB.
The phone packs a 3.1 MP rear camera and a VGA front camera. To power all these, the device has a 1500 mAh battery.
The nature of the operating system doesn’t require the phone to have better specifications than this, but according to analysts and consumers who were quoted in Indian newspapers, people do look at specifications even when buying low-cost smartphones. Particularly the poor camera Samsung Z1 sports immediately turns off new customers.
Android One phones are likely the killers of what Tizen phones could have been.
Samsung in response to the criticisms said in a statement that its Samsung Z1 phone comes with exclusive benefits such as faster page loading speed, simple user interface and longer battery life. But apparently that is not enough to grab consumers’ attention to sell a phone, especially when there are lots of other options within this price range that come with Android operating system.
Needless to say, the biggest benefit of Android operating system is the enormous number of apps that are available for it. Samsung said its Tizen store has about 1 thousand apps available right now. Although that includes most of the popular services like Facebook, it is not enough.
It is still too early to say what the future of Tizen will be. Samsung Z1 is the first phone to feature Tizen operating system which is, notably, at version 2.3 already. Samsung might learn from its mistakes and come up with a better spec’d version of the next smartphone that runs on Tizen out of the box.
What do you think about Samsung’s initiative of running its own developed operating system instead of Android?
