Samsung to Sell Tizen-Based Handsets After Google-Motorola Deal
Samsung Electronics Co. (005930), the world's largest seller of mobile phones, said it will start selling smartphones this year featuring the Tizen operating system backed by Intel Corp. — “We plan to release new …
Context & Ripple Effects
Samsung had already planned a Google phone launch in 2008, placing its Tizen move in a longer effort to broaden its handset software options. With Intel backing Tizen, Samsung’s stated plan to sell Tizen phones in 2013 turns that alternative from a platform alliance into a consumer-device test.
The Google-Motorola deal gives Samsung added reason to reduce reliance on a software partner that is also tied to a handset maker. The significance is distribution: a leading phone seller can give Tizen an immediate route to users and developers.
First-order effects
- Samsung gains a second smartphone operating-system path alongside its Google-phone strategy, while Intel gains a major handset vendor committed to putting Tizen into market.
- Google faces a key hardware partner testing an alternative software platform as the Google-Motorola relationship reshapes handset-industry incentives.
Second-order effects
- Tizen’s viability will depend on whether Samsung can attract the application, carrier, and developer support needed to make its handsets competitive with established smartphone platforms.
- Samsung’s ability to shift handset volume between platforms strengthens its leverage in negotiations over the software terms and services attached to its devices.
Third-order effects
- If other large device makers pursue comparable alternatives, smartphone competition may shift from hardware differentiation alone toward control of the operating-system and developer-distribution layers.
- The episode belongs to a broader handset-industry move toward vertical leverage, in which hardware companies seek more bargaining power over the software platforms their products depend on.
The trend: Major handset makers are seeking greater control over the software layer as platform providers expand their own hardware ambitions.