Samsung Electronics Co on Tuesday unwrapped its new smartphone using the Tizen platform, a move aimed at breaking away from Google Inc’s Android and staking a claim to the “Internet of Things.”
The South Korean consumer electronics colossus showed off the Samsung Z, its first Tizen-powered smartphone, in a major shift away from the ubiquitous Android operating system used in the majority of its devices.
Samsung touted Tizen as a platform not just for phones, but for a range of connected devices, from home appliances to door locks and watches, which may communicate with one another in the future.
The unveiling came a day after Apple Inc — a few blocks away in San Francisco — unveiled a coming new version of its iOS mobile operating system with capabilities that could have iPhones, iPads, and iPod touch devices vying for that same spot in the middle of a what is billed as the booming Internet of Things (IOT).
The world’s biggest smartphone maker made its pitch at the Tizen Developer Conference, a forum that aims to help the platform become a rival to Android and Apple’s iOS.
Samsung showed off a line of Tizen-powered devices, ranging from Tizen-Android cameras to its freshly announced smartphone powered entirely by the South Korean technology firm’s open-source operating system.
Samsung even teased a prototype smart TV that connects to rich online content using Tizen.
The Samsung Z, which has been specially developed to run on the Tizen platform, is to go on sale in Russia in the third quarter of this year before reaching other markets.
International Data Corp (IDC) on Tuesday forecast that the global Internet of Things market will grow from US$1.9 trillion last year to US$7.1 trillion in the year 2020.
People are embracing the “IOT” in their homes, vehicles and elsewhere, while businesses are being lured by promises of efficiency and revenue, according to IDC.
“The worldwide IOT market is exploding,” IDC mobile services vice president Carrie MacGillivray said.
California-based Google has long pitched the potential for its free Android operating system to be used to power broad arrays of devices in homes in a vision that goes far beyond smartphones and tablet computers.
Developer Henry Yu of Silicon Valley-based RGB, which specializes in streamlining video formats, was among those at the Tizen conference and said he suspects that no single platform would rule the Internet of Things.
“At the end of the day, they will have to work together,” Yu said of rivals such as Samsung, Apple and Google vying to be at the center of the Internet of Things. “The Internet-of-Things has been around, but it is hodgepodge. People will want to get along because they want each other’s market.”
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