The first Tizen-powered device is due to be released next year.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.

The first Tizen-powered device is due to be released next year.

The evolution of the mobile OS Tizen has taught its development team a number of lessons ahead of the first handset launch next year, according to Samsung’s lead evangelist for Tizen, Cheng Luo.

Discussing the development of the Linux-based platform for smartphones, which marries the former MeeGo efforts of Intel and Nokia with the work of the LiMo Foundation and is backed by Samsung (among other industry heavyweights), Luo said that the need for all participants to use open standards such as HTML5 when developing the OS has become apparent.

However, he added that HTML5 has been overhyped; despite a lot of “cool stuff”, it is limited by its frame rate. Luo added that the technology should not be used to compete with native apps but more to “fill in the gaps” in functionality.

In terms of licensing and governance, the best long-term strategy has been found to be “transparent governance”, according to Luo.

Luo also stressed the importance of industry support for Tizen to succeed. “To make open source projects move ahead we need strong leaders. You can’t build a healthy ecosystem without industry leaders,” he said. As well as Samsung, Tizen is backed by the likes of Docomo, Intel, NEC, Panasonic, Orange, SK Telecom, Sprint and Vodafone.

The alpha version of the Tizen 2.0 SDK was recently launched, including an improved integrated development environment, user interface framework and a greater number of device APIs. The first Tizen-powered device is due to be released next year, Luo confirmed.

LIVE FROM APPS WORLD, LONDON.

Samsung planning bada and Tizen unity

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.


Samsung is reportedly planning to align its bada device platform with Tizen, the operating system being developed under the auspices of the Linux Foundation.

According to Forbes, an executive for the South Korean handset giant last week said that there is “an effort that will merge bada and Tizen,” but it was not revealed what its roadmap for this is. The intention is that apps written using the bada SDK will be supported by Tizen, with developers for both eventually using the same tools.

The report suggests that while aligned from a developer perspective, the two OS could remain separate, with bada optimised for low-cost devices and Tizen positioned as a smartphone platform. This would enable the platforms to reach higher volumes, while enabling developers to use the same tools to address both high-end and mass-market handsets.

Forbes said that Samsung will offer “at least one or two” Tizen-powered devices this year, but that it will not become a cornerstone platform in its portfolio “anytime soon.” An “alpha” version of Tizen was announced earlier this year.

Samsung is already a member of the Tizen Association, a group intended to “drive industry engagement  and in-market support” for the operating system. It was previously a member of LiMo Foundation, one of the two efforts which united to create Tizen alongside the Intel-backed MeeGo project.

The vendor does not break-out figures for its handset business, making it difficult to judge the success of bada. While Samsung’s smartphone portfolio is dominated by Android devices, it has been suggested that more bada handsets are sold than the combined volume for Windows Phone device makers.

According to reports late last year, more than 110 million bada apps have been downloaded  from the Samsung Apps portal.


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The Tizen Association: Tizen device platform launched

The Tizen Association: Tizen device platform launched

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

An alpha version of the new Linux-based Tizen device software platform has been launched. First announced in September 2011, Tizen is a joint project of the Linux Foundation (post below) and LiMo Foundation, to create a standards-based HTML5 and WAC web development environment for device-independent applications. 

The Tizen Association – which includes NEC Casio, NTT Docomo, Panasonic, Samsung, SK Telecom, Telefonica and Vodafone on its board - started to build industry engagement and in-market support for the platform on 1 January.

Mobile Linux groups back HTML5 for Tizen platform

28 Sep 2011

The Linux Foundation and the LiMo Foundation have united to create a new Linux-based device software platform, called Tizen.

In a statement, the companies said that “Tizen combines the best open source technologies from LiMo and the Linux Foundation and adds a robust and flexible standards-based HTML5 and WAC web development environment within which device-independent applications can be produced efficiently for unconstrained cross-platform deployment.”

The intention is for the platform to leverage the “robustness and flexibility” of HTML5, which it said is “rapidly emerging as a preferred application environment for mobile applications,” alongside the “broad carrier support” of the Wholesale Applications Community.

In a blog post, Imad Sousou, co-leader of Meego’s technical steering group, said: “we believe the future belongs to HTML5-based applications, outside of a relatively small percentage of apps, and we are firmly convinced that our investment needs to shift toward HTML5.”

Some developers have questioned whether the Qt application framework will be adopted by Tizen, in the way that it was by Meego – and so far this has not been addressed.

By focusing on HTML5 for development, Sousou said that other APIs not visible to programmers need not by as rigid, and “can evolve with platform technology and can vary by market segment.” This will be especially important as Tizen is intended to be used across different device types, including smartphones, netbooks and in-car terminals.

The Tizen project will reside within the Linux Foundation.