Samsung Launches Tizen Phone In India

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Samsung Launches Tizen Phone In India

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday January 14, 2015 @09:03AM from the check-it-out dept.

puddingebola notes that Samsung's first smartphones powered by its Tizen operating system have gone on sale in India. "After plenty of speculation and an abort launch in Russia last year, Samsung has finally managed to release its first phone powered by the Tizen operating system. The Samsung Z1 is coming to India initially, where it is available to buy for 5,700 INR — that’s around $92 — from today. The Z1 is an affordable device, both in price and specs. It packs a four-inch WVGA PLS screen, and is powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor and 768 MB RAM. There’s a 3.1-megapixel camera on the rear, and a limited VGA camera on the front. The phone runs version 2.3 of the Tizen operating system, and comes with 4GB of on-device storage which can be expanded by up to 64GB via a micro SD card. It supports dual SIMs, as is commonplace with devices in India."

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LOL fascists by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-14 09:11 · Score: -1

Sorry, Samsung but people buy your phones for the Android part. Without Android, no one wants your shit.
1. Re:LOL fascists by RenderSeven · 2015-01-14 09:14 · Score: 1
  
  Sure, like most consumers know what an "Operating System" is...
2. Re:LOL fascists by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-14 09:17 · Score: 0
  
  But they do know brand names and Android is a widely used brand name in phone advertisements.
3. Re:LOL fascists by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-14 09:23 · Score: 0
  
  ...... and there goes the neighborhood. Android Fragmentation be dammed. We here at Samysungy want to mess things up further with our own OS with no Ecosystem to support it. ANDROID IS FREE DAMMIT! Having to even consider IOS and Apple at all is horrible enough.
4. Re:LOL fascists by ArhcAngel · 2015-01-14 09:34 · Score: 1
  
  Not in India. As long as it can run android apps they won't care wha the OS is.
  
  --
  "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
5. Re:LOL fascists by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-14 09:40 · Score: 0
  
  They know that if you have a different OS it might not run the same "apps", because you know, that whole Mac & PC incompatibility thing is fairly well known even to nearly computer illiterate grandmothers.
6. Re:LOL fascists by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-14 09:50 · Score: 1
  
  Not in India. As long as it can run android apps they won't care wha the OS is.
  RTA:
  
  “Both Android and iOS apps must have their codes re-written to run on Tizen devices,” a spokesperson said.
  So, it depends if and how fast the App developers want to convert their code.
7. Re:LOL fascists by unique_parrot · 2015-01-14 09:53 · Score: 1
  
  I won't by a samsung phone ever again. They don't update and just shit on the customers... God-thank's to alternatives, at least there are some because of sales unites of samsung phones. Poor people who bought unpopular phones... I like my nexus 5 i bought 2nd hand (nexus 6 is too expensive).
8. Re:LOL fascists by ArhcAngel · 2015-01-14 10:07 · Score: 1
  
  Uh...you go RTFA linked to. No modification necessary. Just install ACL app and install apps.
  
  --
  "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
9. Re:LOL fascists by sonicmerlin · 2015-01-14 10:17 · Score: 0
  
  I don't think a lot of people "want" Android. Just its apps. Most other OS's will get better battery life than Android. They won't lag, won't run in a VM, etc.
10. Re:LOL fascists by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-14 10:38 · Score: 0
  
  Uh...you go RTFA linked to. No modification necessary. Just install ACL app and install apps.
  Users would be crazy to do such.
11. Re:LOL fascists by unixisc · 2015-01-14 11:03 · Score: 1
  
  As far as India goes, the brand names that matter are the manufacturers - be it Samsung, LG, Sony, Karbonn, Micromaxx, previously Nokia and to a niche, Apple. Android or Windows Phone isn't what sells.
12. Re: LOL fascists by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-14 13:09 · Score: 0
  
  Android is not free, it comes with all kinds of baggage to feed Googles business model. At least if you want to use any of the higher end bits that make it useful at least.
13. Re:LOL fascists by gl4ss · 2015-01-14 18:46 · Score: 1
  
  if you think tizen style javascript apps are better than android vm apps then.. eh.
  whatever. in design tizen isn't that different from any other linux + app layer designs.
  it's just whatever shit you have installed on the android, nokia x(yes an android based phone) gets a week+ of standby(and about same specs as the samsung tizen and about the same price and has been out for a year. not for long of course since ms killed it and never released the x in euro/usa).
  
  --
  world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
14. Re:LOL fascists by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-15 04:47 · Score: 0
  
  Uh...you go RTFA linked to. No modification necessary. Just install ACL app and install apps.
  I read that. Then I read the bit that said that it wasn't true:
  "Samsung did, however, confirm that [the article about ACL] suggesting that the Z1 could use Android apps [was] incorrect."
Too expensive by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-14 09:17 · Score: 0

Samsung has become an entity which has lost the ability to compete
If Samsung thinks that they can fool the Indians with this "tizen" phone, they are greatly mistaken
Price-wise this phone is more expensive than one from Lenovo, the Lenovo A316i. Spec-wise Lenovo's A316i is no way inferior to Samsung's Z1
Plus the Lenovo low cost phone runs Android, which means users get to enjoy thousands and thousands of ready-made apps
How many 'tizen-apps' are there?
Sheeeeze ........
1. Re:Too expensive by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-14 09:41 · Score: 0
  
  Um... Samsung is bigger than Apple, and has a LOT of markets worldwide that Apple cannot even set foot in.
  Take Iran. If you hit Tehran, Samsung has a major presence in the country. Apple can't sell there directly, so it is Samsung's show there.
  Samsung might be having some issues right now, but with their worldwide dominant position, it is nothing to be worried about.
  They know what they are doing. It took a five digit bounty just to get -root- on their latest flagship phone, much less an actual bootloader break.
2. Re:Too expensive by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-14 09:46 · Score: 0
  
  GP never mentioned Apple.
3. Re:Too expensive by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-14 10:42 · Score: 0
  
  Take Iran. If you hit Tehran, Samsung has a major presence in the country. Apple can't sell there directly, so it is Samsung's show there.
  Samsung - preferred by 9 out of 10 terrorists!
4. Re:Too expensive by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-14 10:46 · Score: 0
  
  Samsung has become an entity which has lost the ability to compete
  They seem to be the market leader at the moment, but who knows - this sort of thing can turn around quickly.
  
  If Samsung thinks that they can fool the Indians with this "tizen" phone, they are greatly mistaken
  Fool?
  
  Price-wise this phone is more expensive than one from Lenovo, the Lenovo A316i. Spec-wise Lenovo's A316i is no way inferior to Samsung's Z1
  The A316i is about 40% cheaper than the Z1, which is already quite affordable for us 3rd-worlders. But those of us actually intending to use the phone's camera from time to time would probably regret getting the otherwise-nice Lenovo. The Z1's camera isn't amazing, but it does the job well and is an enormous improvement over the A316i's. Both have dual-SIM, which is a godsend, and both support SD cards, which are very handy. Android vs Tizen is mostly a matter of preference and a customer would probably try out both in the shop to compare. That can go either way - I'd probably go with Tizen personally, although I'd love to give Sailfish a try too if I ever actually encounter a phone that uses it. Spec-wise, the Z1 has half-again the memory and twice the storage capability of the A316i, as well as a better battery life. It's lighter but also slightly bigger.
  The two budget phones are quite similar despite being in different price brackets, but both are affordable options and there's a clear "does it do what I want" line between the two.
  
  Plus the Lenovo low cost phone runs Android, which means users get to enjoy thousands and thousands of ready-made apps
  How many 'tizen-apps' are there?
  All the Android Apps which work on the A316 work on the Z1 too, from what I hear, so the Z1 wins this point hands-down.
  
  Sheeeeze ........
  Bless you
5. Re:Too expensive by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-14 10:58 · Score: 0
  
  GP did not claim that GGP mentioned Apple, but rather brought it up himself as a counterexample to the assertion "Samsung has become an entity which has lost the ability to compete", arguing that Samsung is not less able to compete than Apple. Thus as long as you consider Apple to be an entity able to compete then it follows that Samsung is NOT an entity which has lost the ability to compete.
6. Re:Too expensive by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-14 13:21 · Score: 0
  
  And that means what if the US or Israel turns Iran into a glowing crater? Does Samsung have a glowing pretense in Syria and North Korea too? Being able to sell a overpriced phone to millions of dirt poor people is not a measure of economic prowess, its a measure of desperation. To be dominant you have to be in the major markets. Those are US, Europe and Asia. Both are. Both produce shit. So personally Samsung announcing that they are selling their new operating system with no real apps to 1 million Indians that can actually afford it is less exciting that they announcement that both Blake Shelton and Ariana Grande are going playing the Houston Livestock and Rodeo (which is visited by roughly the same amount of people). Both are equally meaningless statements to those that aren't houston or are sleeping in their wood shack outside Bangalore and using the Ganges as a toilet.
7. Re:Too expensive by Tough+Love · 2015-01-14 18:47 · Score: 1
  
  All the Android Apps which work on the A316 work on the Z1 too...
  Hmm, Open Mobile's proprietary ACL looks like the smartest move Samsung made in the whole slow motion Tizen trainwreck. Obviously, completely incompatible with an open source drop unless Samsung outright buys the company and releases it Google style, which is about the only possible why they could claw back their tarnished cred at this point. No doubt, ACL is just 99% BSD licensed Android libs, which demonsrates why Google pulled a real boner not making at least some of the Copyleft. Samsung could realistically just flip the finger to the open source community at this point and put out a 100% proprietary Android compatible phone running 90% Android code, and if they sell it cheap enough, people will buy it. But you're really talking bottom feeding at that point, not sufficient to provide the revenue scale that Samsung has gotten used to. But somebody is going to do just that (Amazon already did, but that wasn't in India...)
  
  --
  When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Runaway Best Seller of Massive Proporations! by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-14 09:24 · Score: 0

Bound to be. 1.5 BILLION people can't be wrong. Unless you're from Giddeon.
Tizen is OSS by ArhcAngel · 2015-01-14 09:47 · Score: 0

Samsung has put A LOT of time and energy into Tizen but Tizen is OSS from the ground up. Google gave us a mostly OSS Android experience but OEM's don't like being beholden to them in many areas. Especially areas where Google is competing against them. Tizen is very appealing in that regard and why so many OEM's are looking at Tizen in their devices. Look for all manner or smart devices to start running Tizen in the near future.

--
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
1. Re:Tizen is OSS by Lunix+Nutcase · 2015-01-14 10:03 · Score: 1
  
  Tizen is very appealing in that regard and why so many OEM's are looking at Tizen in their devices.
  
  Hahaha bullshit. No one is lining up to use Tizen.
  
  Look for all manner or smart devices [tizenexperts.com] to start running Tizen in the near future.
  All manner? Of all the stories on the first page only 6 were about anything but this phone. The top story was just about people wanting Tizen on a compute stick and only 2 other stories were about something using Tizen that wasn't Samsung.
2. Re:Tizen is OSS by unixisc · 2015-01-14 11:06 · Score: 1
  
  Wasn't Tizen Intel's or Nokia's OS? The replacement for Meego that didn't use Qt?
3. Re:Tizen is OSS by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-14 12:29 · Score: 0
  
  Actually it was started as a collaboration between Motorola, NEC, Panasonic and Samsung before MeeGo even existed. It was called LiMo at first, and changed it's name to Tizen a few years into development when Intel joined the group. But yes, it uses EFL rather than Qt and when Tizen became mature enough MeeGo was dropped in favour of it.
4. Re:Tizen is OSS by Jane+Q.+Public · 2015-01-14 13:46 · Score: 1
  
  Samsung has put A LOT of time and energy into Tizen but Tizen is OSS from the ground up. Google gave us a mostly OSS Android experience but OEM's don't like being beholden to them in many areas.
  What he said. Also, Tizen is NOT "OSS from the ground up". It is a mishmash of licensing schemes and some of the software is very definitely proprietary.
5. Re:Tizen is OSS by Dynamoo · 2015-01-14 14:53 · Score: 1
  
  Tizen = LiMo + MeeGo + Bada
  Although also Tizen = liMo + MeeGo because Bada was rolled into Tizen later
  And MeeGo = Maemo + Mobilin (Nokia and Intel respectively).
  So, ultimately Tizen = LiMo + Maemo + Moblin + Bada.
  
  --
  Never email donotemail@WeAreSpammers.com
6. Re:Tizen is OSS by Tough+Love · 2015-01-14 18:24 · Score: 1
  
  Like hell it is. Samsung can't get its head out of its butt to do a buildable code drop of the OS let alone the SDK. Don't even think about outside contributions. Bugs? A Samsung engineer will get to it, sure thing. Hardware? Real Soon Now. Look, it's not like just any handset can run this, ok? It has to be a special, moisture proof wankable handset. OK, let's see the source tree for the India phone. Let's download and build it, load it into the ROM. Don't forget to take your bows on Twitter when you're done.
  This whole project is a just a circle jerk between Samsung, Intel and Linux foundation manager droids without the slightest community cred or engineering clue. Maemo without the maemo. All wank and no code. More open than Android it aint. Sad.
  
  --
  When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Indian market is very strange by 140Mandak262Jamuna · 2015-01-14 10:51 · Score: 3, Interesting

The market is flooded with cheap chinese knock-offs that sell far cheaper than 6000 Rs. Many of them have dual or triple SIM cards. It is not unusual for them to use one SIM for making within-metro calls, another to for National or statewide calls and yet another one to make international calls. The quality is terrible and reliability is atrocious on these cheap chinese phones. But competition is brutal. Not much of margin there.
Instead of looking at raw sales based on number of units or gross receipts, if one starts breaking down the market by amount of profit generated, iPhone is well ensconced. Top end Samsung comes in next.
Samsung should be careful to distinguish the models and handsets very obviously and visibly. If the brand acquires an association as the "phone for the unwashed masses", the high profit segment will just disappear. My nephew visiting me derisively called the old flip phone "a servant [maid] 's phone". Other nephews and nieces make sure their clothes and accessories will not be mistaken for a cheap imitation. It is a very class conscious society. And the training starts early. Almost all their buying decision seems to be driven by "what my peers will think if they catch me using this product?".

--
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
1. Re:Indian market is very strange by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-14 17:41 · Score: 0
  
  May be, but the specs of "cheap" phones like xiaomi beat the iphone hollow. Many folks I know have been using oppo and xiaomi and micromax phones and they're really good. Way cheaper than the iphone. You don't have to think twice about buying another one in case this one breaks. You can go through 5 or 6 phones for the price of one iphone.
  And about peer pressure, it is all about how well you can convince your so-called 'peers' that you're using a far superior product than the one they have :) iphone is more cult than quality.
2. Re:Indian market is very strange by Tough+Love · 2015-01-14 18:12 · Score: 2
  
  Decent LG Android handset you can get right now, unlocked, for 40 bucks.
  
  --
  When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Android is now more a apps market than an OS by jcdr · 2015-01-15 02:17 · Score: 1

* Users want Android because there fell confident that this allow them to be at the same level as others users.
* Developers want Android because there fell confident that this allow them to spread there application to the maximum of users.
* Manufacturers want Android because users and developers want Android.
Now the drawback of this situation is that Google take too much control of Android. Most users and developers don't have any problem with that, but this is certainly not the case for many manufacturers that basically only have there brand name and distributors channels to compete, as the mid range hardware tend to normalize across all this industry.
Tizen is actually only an OS. The interesting experiment is to use Open Mobile’s ACL Technology to add the Android market on the Tizen OS. This is a long move. If successful, it can split the Android dominance into two parts: the Android apps market and the Android OS. Google will probably keep control of the Android OS, but there will be an increasing pressure to take some control of the Android apps market from Google.
It will be interesting to see how Google will react to "OpenMobile World Wide" in case there product start to gain a substantial market share. Will be open or evil ?