Linux foundation has announced a new mobile operating system called Tizen.
Samsung and Intel are the prominent backers of this OS, which will also work
on tablets, netbooks, TVs and in-vehicle devices.
Tizen is an open source, standards-based software platform supported by leading mobile operators, device manufacturers, and silicon suppliers for multiple device categories, including smartphones, tablets, netbooks, in-vehicle infotainment devices, smart TVs, and more. Tizen will offer an innovative operating system, applications, and a user experience that consumers can take from device to device.
The Tizen project will reside within the Linux Foundation and will be governed by a Technical Steering Group. The Technical Steering Group is the primary decision-making body for the open source project, with a focus on platform development and delivery, along with the formation of working groups to support device verticals.
Tizen will provide a robust and flexible environment for application developers, based on HTML5 and Wholesale Applications Community (WAC). With HTML5's robust capabilities and cross platform flexibility, it is rapidly becoming the preferred development environment for mobile apps and services. The Tizen SDK and API will allow developers to use HTML5 and related web technologies to write applications that run across multiple device segments, including smartphone, tablet, smart TV, in-vehicle infotainment, and netbook.
There are several reasons to believe that this project will taste success or will at least remain in focus. Samsung already has a smartphone operating system under its belt with BADA (an OS that has seen a fair amount of success,) and will use its know-how to improve Tizen. Intel too has a lot of experience with MeeGo, an OS which techies used to love.
The other reason is that Linux Foundation has a fairly large number of members in Fujitsu, Panasonic, NEC, Motorola, ARM, ACCESS, Casio, NTT DoCoMo, SK Telecom, Telefonica, Vodafone and a host of others. While it is still not clear what their position with this new project is, we certainly expect to hear some of them joining it soon. Motorola could be ruled out as it is now owned by Google, the biggest rival of this project.
Mobile manufacturers like Huawei and HTC are also trying their hands at cloud services and so are mobile operators across the globe. These companies will like this OS for this reason more than anything else.
Linux foundation will open the entire Tizen software stack from the core OS up through the core applications and polished user interfaces. Tizen and its SDK (software development kit) are expected to be released in the first quarter of 2012, with the first devices hitting the market in mid 2012.
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