Yesterday, during the most insane launch event in the history of technology, Samsung unveiled its next big flagship, the Galaxy S4. I really couldn't care less about this new phone - another plastic phone that looks exactly like its predecessor - but the flurry of interviews with Samsung executives that followed is far more interesting. With them, Samsung has repositioned Tizen - and if you connect the dots, something interesting is starting to appear.
The Galaxy S4 event last night set a new standard for total pointlessness, and was so over the top and ridiculous I really don't want to waste too many words on it. One thing stood out though - even if, by now, it should no longer do so: very few, if any, mentions of Android or Google. Here we have what will inevitably become one of the world's most popular smartphones, yet there's no mention of the operating system it runs, or the company behind said operating system.
Then there's Samsung's attitude towards Windows 8, Windows RT, and Windows Phone 8. Mildly put, the company doesn't really see much value in any of them. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Samsung's J.K. Shin said that "smartphones and tablets based on Microsoft's Windows operating system aren't selling very well. There is a preference in the market for Android. In Europe, we're also seeing lacklustre demand for Windows-based products."
So, the company is de-emphasising Android and Google, while at the same time talking down anything related to Windows. There's one final piece of the puzzle - and that's Tizen. In an interview with Bloomberg, Lee Young Hee, executive vice president of Samsung's mobile division, revealed that not only will Samsung release phones running Tizen later this year, they will be high-end.
Full article:
http://www.osnews.com/story/26865/Samsung_s_future_is_Tizen_not_Android
