Only half a year after releasing its first smartwatch, the Samsung Galaxy Gear, the South Korean company announced the Samsung Gear 2 and the Samsung Gear 2 Neo at the Unpacked 5 event that was held in Barcelona, Spain, at the Mobile World Congress 2014. While the design of the two new smartwatches is similar to that of the first Galaxy Gear smartwatch, Samsung made a lot of changes. Not only specs were changed, but Samsung also ditched the Galaxy branding, as the company decided to create a new brand, dedicated only for wearable devices: the ‘Gear’ brand (which includes Smasung’s smartwatches and the recently unveiled Samsung Gear Fit, the company’s first attempt to enter the fitness tracker market).
However, the ‘Galaxy’ brand was not the only thing Samsung ditched for the release of the Samsung Gear 2 and the Samsung Gear 2 Neo. Not long ago, we reported rumors that Samsung will ditch the Android mobile OS in favor of its own mobile Operating System, Tizen. These rumors proved to be accurate as indeed the South Korean giant will release its two new smartwatches with Tizen as their mobile Operating System, instead of Google’s now famous Android. We believe the reason behind the move is obvious, as Samsung most likely wants its devices to run on its own proprietary mobile Operating System. The two new Gear 2 smartwatches also enjoy improved compatibility, as they can now be synced with “dozens” of Samsung devices, while the first generation Galaxy gear was only compatible with a few. BMW, CNN, Garmin, Line, and Path already announced that they will be making apps for the Samsung Gear 2 and the Samsung Gear 2 Neo. Tizen offers the same funciontality as Android as far as the two new Samsung Gear devices are concerned. You can answer calls and check notification using either of the Samsung Gear 2 and the Samsung Gear 2 Neo.
But what is Tizen? Just like Google’s Android mobile Operating System, Tizen is a Linux based operating system for devices (supporting smartphones, tablets, in vehicle infotainment (IVI) devices, smart TVs, and smart cameras) and it will be Samsung’s own mobile Operating System, just like Apple has its own mobile OS for the company’s iDevices. There is also a Tizen Association that includes members such as: Fujitsu, Huawei, Intel Corporation, KT, NEC CASIO Mobile Communications, NTT DOCOMO, Orange, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung, SK Telecom, Sprint and Vodafone. The Tizen Association guides the mobile Operating System’s path in the industry.
The first device to use the Tizen OS was Samsung’s NX300M smart camera, which was released in October last year. In late October 2013, Systena released the first Tizen based tablet ( a 10″ quad-core ARM with 1920×1200 resolution) exlcusively in Japan. The two Gear smartwatches (the Samsung Gear 2 and the Samsung Gear 2 Neo) are the first wearable devices to run Tizen and finally, the first smartphone to run Tizen as its mobile OS will be the Samsung ZEQ 9000.
The new line of products that Samsung unveiled at this year’s Mobile World Congress, wearing the ‘Gear’ brand, are the two new smartwatches, the Samsung Gear 2 and the Samsung Gear 2 Neo and the company’s first fitness tracker, the Samsung Gear Fit, and they are all running on Tizen, instead of Android. And even though the two new smartwatches run the Linux based operating system from Samsung, they kept all the features that the first Galaxy Gear had on Android; the Gear 2 and the Gear 2 Neo even feature the same user interface as the Galaxy Gear, even though they run on different mobile Operating Systems.
And this brings us to the question: what would happen to Android if Samsung were to go Tizen exclusive for all of its upcoming devices, including the Samsung Galaxy S6 (which will most likely be released next year). This is an important question, as Samsung is right now the most prominent player for android. There are only two things that can happen: either the move would be beneficial to Google and the move would hurt Samsung more than it will hurt Android, either the move would hurt Google as it will lose the single biggest hardware maker they have. In any case, Samsung going Tizen exclusive would mean that Android gets a fierce competitor. But let’s analyze each of these possibilities.
The first scenario involves a loss for Google as it will not only lose the single biggest hardware maker they have (Samsung which is the only one that can keep up with Apple) but also gain another competitor in the mobile OS market, besides iOS. As we said, Samsung is the only one that can keep up with Apple, as the South Korean manufacturer’s smartphones outsell the rest of the Android hardware makers, including Google and its Nexus line (the context here is total smartphones). They account for 40 percent of the total Android market and they are second only to Apple when looking at singular models.
To the end consumer, the change from Android to Tizen wouldn’t look like much. Samsung’s upcoming products that will run on Tizen will all feature the company’s TouchWiz user interface, re-purposed to look the same, but be running Tizen. Users would definitely notice the lack of the Google Play Store and Google Apps, but I’m pretty sure that app makers would release versions for of Android apps for Tizen. The move would also allow Samsung to compete directly with Apple in terms of software, data, OS and brand capability, but even though Samsung has been in a slightly weaker position the last two years. They lost a little ground to HTC and Sony in terms of smartphones. Even so, losing the entire Galaxy line, the Note line, and all the low budget smartphones would be a pretty big loss for Google because that represents over 500 million smartphones that would end up running a competing OS, so Google will start to lose out on the 40% of total Android users using Samsung phones.
On the other hand, if Samsung were to go Tizen exclusive for its upcoming devices, the move may actually prove beneficial to Google and hurt Samsung. If Google didn’t have Samsung to deal with, maybe they would have a lot more power and control of what to do with Android without having to worry about a single, large manufacturer that has the ability to fight back. It may also hurt Samsung more than it hurts Android. Why? Because arguably, the Samsung offers some of the best Android devices at the moment, which is why consumers buy them. So the question is: do people buy a Galaxy device just because it is a Galaxy branded device or because it just happens to have the best in class specs and value for the Android ecosystem? So, do consumers love the Android ecosystem or the Samsung brand more?
There may not be a black and white answer to the above question, but the question does have relevance. Samsung managed to built up some brand loyalty and maybe if they switched now from Android to Tizen, Android would be in trouble. But hardware aside, are there really users that buy Samsung devices because they love the TouchWiz user interface? It may be said that if Samsung moves away from Android, the South Korean company may actually move away from most of the factors that make people support them in the smartphone market. Of course, this is only speculation at this point, but it is a very interesting point of view.
So, how does Tizen compare to Android? Well, Samsung’s mobile Operating System is more or less able to use android apps. However, there would still be lost of apps that would not be compatible with Tizen and would need to be ported by each individual developer to work on Tizen, though since both the Android mobile OS and the Tizen mobile OS are based on Linux, porting apps from one Operating System to another may not be that difficult. What would be difficult for users in migrating from one mobile Operating System and ecosystem to another is that they would need to repurchase all of their apps; this may be a real problem as users would wonder where all of their books / movies / tv shows / games / apps / Google Music subscription’s went and why they had to repurchase them, and why there is no Chrome / Google Maps / Youtube / Playstore etc.
The Tizen ecosystem would be starting from a user base of zero, and convincing the user base to convert and leave all of their purchases, apps and ecosystem behind with the promise of the same apps and features would be very very difficult for Samsung. The South Korean company would find itself in a similar position to that where Microsoft was with its Windows Phone 8 in the beginning. Of course, it can be argued that Samsung does have a pretty strong brand name (Galaxy and Note), but that may not mean much if the entirety of the Galaxy user base expects Google Play Services on their ‘Galaxy’ phones.
You may remember the negative reaction consumers had when they didn’t get Google Maps on iOS for a month or so, and Windows Phone 8 owners still want a Youtube app. It would be really interesting to see how Samsung’s user base (millions of users) would react when they buy the supposed Tizen exclusive Samsung Galaxy S6 and lose access to all their apps, games and content - not have the Playstore or its entire ecosystem, and have no Youtube, Maps, and all the other stuff. However, Samsung could try releasing s Tizen exclusive Samsung Galaxy S6 in an emergent market, as an experiment so that the company’s revenue and profit won’t take a hit. China, a market where Android has little presence, may be a good market for Samsung to try a Tizen exclusive Galaxy S6. Another option that Samsung has is to provide equivalent services (which is not exactly tough) though they would need to convince developers to port their Android apps to Tizen.
However, Samsung is a smart company and it would probably still have the big apps from Google and elsewhere. If that would be the case then maybe Android would decline. To be honest there is no way to know the ramifications of such a major decision from Samsung as to completely move from Android to Tizen for its Galaxy and Note lines of devices. In fact, maybe Samsung won’t even do the move and instead adopt a safer strategy: the South Korean company could make both Android and Tizen handsets. After all, why limit it to one, especially when it comes to the company’s flagships – making Android and Tizen variants is a possibility. Regardless of the strategy Samsung decides to adopt for its mobile Operating System, Tizen, we shouldn’t underestimate the brand name that Samsung has built for itself. The future will certainly be very interesting as Tizen will enter the mobile market. What do you think about a Tizen exclusive Samsung Galaxy S6? Would you buy it? Leave a comment in the dedicated section below.
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