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Tag: Tizen

  • Samsung Opens Registration For Its Very First Developer Conference

    Samsung Opens Registration For Its Very First Developer Conference

    Samsung is pretty much Apple at this point. It may use Android as the base of its products, but it builds its hardware around its own software and services. As such, the company is doing what every other platform holder does – host a developer conference.

    Samsung announced today that registration is now open for the first annual Samsung Developers Conference. The conference is being held in San Francisco and will last from October 27 to the 29.

    So, what can you expect from the first ever Samsung Developers Conference? The company’s wide range of Galaxy mobile devices will obviously be represented, but Samsung doesn’t just make the world’s most popular Android device. It also builds smart TVs and other software that it wants developers to create apps for.

    Samsung won’t be exclusively sticking to Android devices at the event either as some of the planned events revolve around the company’s Tizen mobile operating system. Samsung may be using it to target low-end devices for emerging markets, and developers will need to know all about it if they want to cash in on the potential digital gold rush.

    It should be noted that the most interesting aspect of Samsung’s Developer Conference is that it exists. Google already has the Android developer conference locked up with Google I/O. Sure, there are other conferences, but you go to Google I/O to learn straight from the people building the platform. For Samsung, its developer conference looks like another attempt to distance itself from Google, especially with the focus on Tizen.

    With Samsung quickly matching Apple in terms of brand recognition, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Samsung ditch Android in the near future. It’s not like the company needs Android to be successful as long as it can provide the same user experience with its own software. This developer conference may be the first step in convincing developers (i.e. early adopters) to embrace an Android-less Samsung.

    [Image: Samsung]
    [h/t: DroidLife]

  • Samsung Reportedly Slowing Development on OS Tizen

    Samsung Reportedly Slowing Development on OS Tizen

    Last year, Samsung teamed up with Intel and the Linux Foundation to develop Tizen, and open-source operating system for mobile devices. Tizen is one of a few new operating systems (including Firefox OS) to compete with Android for the non-iOS smartphone market. Now, it appears that Samsung may have softened on ditching Android in favor of Tizen.

    DigiTimes today reported that Samsung has “slowed down” its development of Tizen. The report’s unnamed “industry sources” stated that Samsung is purposely delaying the development of Tizen, possibly due to competition in the Android market. Samsung’s abandonment of Android could, the report’s sources say, open up the Android market for Samsung competitors such as HTC, LG, and Sony. Android is, by far, the most popular mobile OS in the world. Samsung could see the failure of platforms such as WebOS and BlackBerry 10 as warnings against pioneering new operating systems.

    Samsung earlier this month delayed the launch of its first Tizen smartphone. The delay was reportedly due to issues with the OS’s app store.

    Samsung CEO JK Shin last week praised Tizen, saying that the OS will be in more than just mobile devices. Samsung envisions Tizen powering user interfaces for cars, bank machines, and point-of-sale devices.

    (via DigiTimes)

  • Samsung Won’t Be Backing Firefox OS

    Samsung Won’t Be Backing Firefox OS

    At this week’s Mobile World Congress, Mozilla announced that it had secured four hardware partners for its first run of Firefox OS handsets. Those four partners – Alcatel, LG, ZTE and Huawei – represent a pretty diverse chunk of OEMs. The platform won’t be supported, however, by one of the largest OEMs in the world.

    CNET reports that Samsung won’t be making any Firefox OS smartphones for the time being. It’s not entirely surprising, but it’s still disappointing that Firefox OS won’t be seeing powerful hardware from Samsung in the future.

    There are a number of reasons that we may not be seeing a Samsung, or any other major OEM, supporting Firefox OS in the near future. For one, Firefox OS is targeted at emerging markets. Samsung does make entry level phones, but its primary focus is on the consumer market in developed countries with devices like the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note.

    Besides, Samsung already has it hands full with the upcoming launch of Tizen, it’s own open source mobile OS. Supporting Firefox OS on top of Android, Windows Phone and Tizen would be too much for any OEM.

    For now, Firefox OS will have to do with its current stable of hardware partners. LG has proven it can build a great phone with its Nexus 4 for Google so a Firefox OS-powered LG phone could be rather attractive. Of course, we won’t know for certain until top level Firefox OS hardware hits after the initial launch of entry level devices.