Samsung pushes first Tizen device to 2013, forgets Bada ever existed
By Vlad Bobleanta on 22 Aug 12Remember Bada? Samsung’s ‘entry-level’ smartphone OS that until recently had bigger market share than Windows Phone? Well, Samsung certainly doesn’t seem to remember it that well. The latest Bada phones to be announced were the Wave 3, Wave M, and Wave Y. And that was almost one year ago, during IFA 2011 in Berlin. Since then, Samsung’s stayed mum on the Bada front.
If you’re wondering why, it’s because Bada is dead. We told you so back in May, so don’t act all surprised and such. Samsung has ‘wrapped up development’ on the platform, and that’s that.
Bada neatly served as a stopgap measure for Samsung in the very low-end of the smartphone space. Back when Symbian (remember that?) was ruling that niche, Samsung had to compete somehow. Android wasn’t an option then for a few reasons: the cheapest hardware available in those days provided a horrible, laggy experience, and the OS itself wasn’t as ‘grown up’ as it is today. Hence, Bada was born.
But today €100-150 Android devices are not only possible, they’re actually decent in terms of performance. So there’s no need for Bada anymore. Especially as supporting yet another platform is probably quite expensive, when you have Android, Windows Phone, and Tizen to think about too.
Ah yes, Tizen. Does that ring a bell? This is essentially what Nokia and Intel’s MeeGo turned into, after the Finnish company went ‘all in’ with Windows Phone. MeeGo’s been the vaporware king of the past few years in the smartphone space. A lot of talk, and almost no results. One device ever on the market, the Nokia N9 (if you don’t count its developer edition), and that isn’t even running ‘proper’ MeeGo, but something based more off of what Nokia had imagined as a version of Maemo (before the partnership with Intel was born).
So, Samsung partnered with Intel and Tizen was ‘born’. Born, of course, on paper. Because while at one point we did hear that we were going to see the first Tizen phone in stores this year, now SamMobile has it that it’s been pushed to 2013.
Apparently some developers already have access to devices running Tizen 1.0, so the OS itself is more or less finished. However, those developers are really unhappy with Tizen support, saying things about missing tools and the likes.
Samsung will focus on Android and Windows Phone for the remainder of this year. There are some new Galaxy smartphones in the pipeline, and the Korean company would like to get some Windows Phone market share back from Nokia, so do expect its first WP8 devices to be very competitive – maybe both in terms of features as well as pricing. From the leaked info we have so far, it does look that way – Samsung’s rumored Odyssey will be a true high-end handset, and the Marco will cater to the lower price points.
As for Tizen, my guess is (and always has been) that it will never amount to anything. Best case scenario – Samsung releases one Tizen device next year or in 2014, and that’s it. Worst case – it will join Bada in the smartphone OS afterlife, if it exists, without any device running it ever being launched.
If you liked the post, you might find these interesting too:
- Samsung’s Bada is officially dead once again. Bada apps will run on Tizen
- Samsung to launch Tizen devices in the second half of 2012, HTC planning to join soon?
- Samsung Bada SDK now publicly available
- Samsung Wave II with Bada 1.2 comes to South Korea this month
- Samsung Tizen 2.0 SDK available for download. First Tizen smartphone could resemble the Galaxy S III
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