This could be a breakthrough year for Tizen as three giants — Docomo, Orange and Samsung — all committed to launch devices running this OS later this year. Two operators on the list announced plans to “commercialize Tizen devices in the second half of 2013,” with Samsung most likely making those handsets.
The Korean electronics giant has been working with operators and content partners in launch territories, in order to offer “a combination of global and local content in each market.” Put into numbers, that’s some 250 partners which gathered for the big show in Barcelona.
Aside from the mentioned three, Intel and Huawei also seem interested to join the party with Intel looking to put its chip in as many devices as possible. On the other hand, Huawei may see it as an opportunity to grow its market share.
Earlier this month, the Tizen 2.0 Magnolia SDK and source code were released to developers, while Samsung officially agreed to merge its Bada platform into the OS.
Finally, it’s worth adding that Tizen Association will also launch a Tizen store later this year featuring thousands of apps with option to allow developers to monetize their work.
As I’m writing this, not that many folks are excited about Tizen. However, that could easily change as soon as we see first devices hitting the store shelves. We’ll let you know when that happens…