Although we still wait to see the first Tizen-powered smartphone, ABI Research is predicting the bright future for the nascent platform. The research firm says that Tizen will emerge as a 5th largest mobile OS by the end of this year, after Android, iOS, Windows Phone and BlackBerry. Other platforms like Firefox OS, Ubuntu and Jolla’s Sailfish don’t have sufficient resources (read: money) to make a big splash (at least for the moment).
Tizen’s main backers, Intel and Samsung, as well as a number of carriers all around the world — including Orange, Vodafone, KT, NTT DoCoMo and SK Telecom — all want to provide a viable alternative to the users.
It is said that carriers in particular don’t like what Apple is doing with its iPhone, leaving them [carriers] with little or no space to add their services on top of iOS. Some carriers did launch their own iOS apps but in many cases these apps don’t come preloaded. On the other hand, there’s Google which is getting more dominant than carriers would want it to be.
According to ABI Research, the Asia-Pacific region will provide the biggest opportunity for the new OS with almost 65% of its future smartphone installed base coming from this region. Overall, the research firm forecasts 135 million Tizen smartphone shipments around the world…