Samsung TVs to Use Tizen Operating System

Samsung TVs to Use Tizen Operating System

Tizen Push Is Samsung’s Latest Attempt to Beef Up Software Capabilities

By Min-Jeong Lee in the Wall Street Journal

SEOUL— Samsung Electronics Co. said Thursday its homegrown operating system known as Tizen is going to be widely adopted in its televisions starting this year in the company’s latest attempt to beef up its software capabilities.

Samsung didn’t disclose market availability or pricing details. The Tizen-based TVs will be showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week.

All of Samsung’s so-called Smart TVs that come with Internet-connectivity will be powered by Tizen in 2015, the South Korean company said. The operating system will allow its TVs to sync with other devices, including smartphones through a Wi-Fi connection allowing content to be shared between devices, Samsung said.

Tizen is an operating system that Samsung has been developing for years together with Intel Corp. , with an initial focus on bringing the platform to its smartphones as an alternative to Google Inc.’s Android operating system.

The majority of Samsung’s smartphones use Android, but Google controls the user experience and is increasingly tightening rules on how much Android handset makers such as Samsung can modify their phones to attract new consumers. That has led Samsung to develop Tizen as an alternative, industry observers say.

But Samsung has failed in the past to launch a Tizen-powered smartphone, with industry observers citing the lack of developer interest as one of the reasons behind the delay.

Samsung’s push to upgrade its Internet-connected TVs by adopting the Tizen platform, highlights the Korean company’s attempts at trying to jump start its consumer electronics unit, which hasn’t brought in significant profit growth to the company.

Samsung is the world’s largest maker of smartphones, TVs and memory-chips, but has seen earnings plunge in recent quarters, hit by cooling mobile-phone sales that still make up a chunk of the company’s total profits.