Samsung and Intel team up on new mobile OS

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 28 Sep 2011 at 11:37

Two Linux software groups have joined forces with Intel and Samsung Electronics to develop a new mobile operating system.

LiMo Foundation and the Linux Foundation said the new Tizen platform is an open-source, standards-based software platform that supports multiple devices including smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, netbooks and in-vehicle 'infotainment' systems.

The initial release is planned for the first quarter of 2012, enabling the first devices using Tizen to come to market in mid-2012, the two groups said.

Tizen aims to unify a number of marginalised Linux based platforms

Intel, which also has its own MeeGo system, and Samsung will head the technical steering committee developing Tizen.

"Tizen aims to unify a number of marginalised Linux based platforms," said Geoff Blaber, an analyst at London-based telecoms industry consultancy CCS Insight.

"There is a willingness to create an independent alternative to Android but history tells us that willingness doesn't necessarily equate to success," he added.

Challenges ahead

Indeed, analysts said the new Tizen platform is likely to struggle to attract wider developer and manufacturer support to compete with the dozen or so other mobile operating systems in a market dominated by Apple and Google's Linux-based Android, with Nokia and HP ditching their own mobile platforms

"The best hope for them is that big operators get worried by Android's increasing smartphone dominance and decide to consciously switch their allegiances to rival platforms to restrict Google's huge influence over the mobile market," said analyst Neil Mawston from Strategy Analytics.

Samsung is the leading user of the Android platform, but some other makers of Android-operated phones have begun to look at alternatives since Google agreed to buy Motorola Mobility last month for $12.5 billion.

"Samsung might be further tempted to try a new system as Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility raised uncertainty over the future of Android," said Song Jong-ho, an analyst at Daewoo Securities.

A spokesman for Samsung said: "We've been a core Linux partner ... and this is in line with our strategy of supporting many platforms."