It is the mobile operating system that the world’s largest manufacturer of smartphones and the most profitable Android OEM as far as sales figures go is said to be banking on as a long term strategy. Yet we are yet to see something come of it. It seems the long wait is worth. The folks over at Tizen Indonesia uncovered an Exynos octa-based Galaxy S4 running the latest version of Tizen, 3.0.
In what is an interesting turn of events given the fact that it is not long ago that word went round (which was later denied by Samsung anyway) that Samsung was throwing in the towel as far as Tizen development was concerned and that it would focus all its energies on the Android platform going forward. Far from it. It seems that with all the media spotlight elsewhere, some developers have been hard at work to bring forth a very competitive mobile platform to compete with the likes of Firefox OS, the increasingly doubtful Ubuntu Touch and already established players like Blackberry OS (which, despite BB10 coming on notable devices like the Z10, it is still losing marketshare) and Windows Phone (which is really on the rise despite many challenges though only having a drop of the marketshare).
It will take a while before we see Tizen have the same impact that Android and iOS have in the mobile world but judging from these leaked shots, something nice is cooking. This is quite a relief bearing in mind that the last time we had leaks on Tizen the user interface was really ugly. There’s some progress. Have a look at the following images of the Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9500) running Tizen 3.0:
What looks like the music player app
Tizen is expected to be released sometime in 2014. It was previously rumoured to be released in October of this year though that seems unlikely. Samsung has just released a whole line of devices running Android over the last few months with the latest additions being the likes of the Galaxy Note 3 and the Galaxy Gear meaning that it is on Android to stay. Tizen still remains a long term strategy and it will be interesting to see what comes of it going forward.
Samsung is interested in making Tizen a success from day one and multiple reports have emerged in the past indicating that Samsung’s co-CEO, JK Shin, has been keen on having the OS come out “as good as perfect” in order to make a lasting impression. If there is any indicator of this then it is the long running Tizen App Challenge which runs till November this year having started way back in July.
Now that it is running on the I9500, why doesn’t someone (anybody) leak it so that those of us itching to flash something new can have something?
