Samsung plans on releasing a smartphone powered by Android competitor Tizen this year. Likewise, Samsung is also working on a smartwatch that runs Android, according to a Reuters report. It’s bizarro world for Samsung.
This alleged product roadmap is a flip-flop from its current lineup which includes smartphones powered only by Android (and Windows Phone) and smartwatches powered by Tizen.
If this report is correct, it shows Samsung’s loose and fast adaptation to market trends. Google’s Android Wear is the hot new platform and apparently leaps and bounds improved from the Android build Samsung previously used in Samsung’s original smartwatches. It would be injurious for Samsung to ignore the improvements found in Android Wear and continue developing Tizen solely for this niche use case.
Samsung also tried its hand at a Tizen smartphone once. But today, in 2014, Samsung commands such a dominant share of the smartphone market that it simply can do whatever it wants. A Tizen smartphone will not outsell an Android unit, but it’s wise for Samsung to give the alternative platform another chance — especially given the rising licensing cost to develop an Android smartphone. An aggressively priced Tizen smartphone could be a boon in developing regions.
Samsung has clearly learned that the fate of consumer electronic companies that do not move fast is often death.