South Korea: Samsung struggles to enter mobile operating system competition

Smartphone giant Samsung has plenty to gain through its quest to rival Apple and Google with its own, new operating system Tizen, but according to reports, the company is hitting some major roadblocks.

Samsung is looking to break the operating system duopoly of Google and Apple with Tizen, which holds the potential for major financial gains for Samsung through third-party app sales. Apple earned $16 billion in app sales along in the most recent fiscal year, reports say.

Samsung would like to take a bite out of those profits. In a statement last month, Samsung co-Chief Executive Boo-Keun Yoon said that he does not feel one “can lead the market by focusing solely on software or hardware.”

But the bold effort is proving to hold major hurdles. Tizen partner NTT DoCoMo, for example, Japan’s largest telecommunications provider, was set to announce its first Tizen-ready smartphone last month. But the company suddenly shelved its plans on its released date due to a lack of demand for an alternative to Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS systems.

Now, say reports, an official launch for Tizen seems less certain, DoCoMo said it would watch market patterns to decide on a potential release of the phone.

Tizen, which was set to be released in 2012, stems from an earlier Samsung project Bada, which was eventually scrapped.

US wireless giant Sprint had partnered with Tizen in support of more operating system competition, but ultimately left the Tizen Association in 2013.

Full Content: Wall Street Journal

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