In the midst of the blaze of excitement surrounding the announcement of Samsung’s flagship Android smartphone, a Samsung executive in Seoul has also revealed that the company plans to launch two other flagship devices this year in addition to the Galaxy S4. While it is fairly certain that one of these two will be a new Galaxy Note, Lee Young Hee, executive vice president of Samsung’s mobile business, has revealed that the final flagship will be a Tizen-based smartphone.
Also, it may be arriving to the market a lot sooner than many expected, with Lee noting that the Tizen smartphone – which will be “the best product equipped with the best specifications” – will be launched in August or September. The mobile operating system, which is co-developed by Samsung and Intel, made its first public appearance in last month’s Mobile World Congress, and a Tizen OS-running device was not expected to be launched until much later this year.
If the Tizen device is indeed launched in August or September, it will be a big blow to fellow alternative mobile OSes Ubuntu Touch and Sailfish, with Canonical stating that the first Ubuntu Touch devices will only be released in October, and Jolla aiming to launch its first Sailfish smartphone by Christmas this year. Considering Samsung’s considerable resources and market share, Ubuntu Touch and Sailfish may find themselves with an ever-shrinking pool of consumers interested in their OS if Tizen proves to be a hit.
(Source: Bloomberg)
