back to article Tizen teasing continues as new members join but none pledge devices

Tizen, the mobile operating system driven by the Linux Foundation, has added 15 new members including Chinese smartphone maker ZTE and Japanese operator Softbank Mobile. Other major names now on board include Chinese search giant Baidu and US operator Sprint, bought last year by Softbank. The remainder of the 15 comprise …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Security, Security, Security

    Three words - security, security, security..

    Google keeps closing their ecosystem, and I would love to break free to a mobe OS with no back doors, and nobody looking over my shoulder... Will Tizen be able to ignore those super-secret orders from our Govt??

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Security, Security, Security

      You would be better off with either Sailfish OS from Jolla or PrivatOS on the Blackphone.

      What will Samsung do with the data and you know Samsung will be bundling a lot of "extra" applications that will minimize the speed of the phone.

  2. xperroni
    Mushroom

    A dog with 15 owners

    Back in Brazil there's a saying: "a dog with two owners starves to death".

    Now Tizen has an additional 15 "owners", each one expecting that some of the others will throw the squalid platform a hardware bone.

    For my money, this will go nowhere but down.

  3. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

    A possible reason for Tizen ...

    ... to prevent Google's terms and conditions becoming a problem to manufacturers and networks. Samsung's Tizen phone vanished just before news reports of Google selling Motorola.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: A possible reason for Tizen ...

      It's called competition and having an alternative. Google are huge and anti-competitive just like any other big company, they're not your friend.

      Did we not learn anything from the days of IBM and Microsoft?

  4. Anonymous Coward 101

    Tizen is just a backup plan for these manufacturers. In the unlikely event Android went to hell, Tizen is better than some crud the manufacturers would come up with. It also gives them a small degree of power over Google, in that they have a fallback solution if required.

    But don't expect a Tizen phone soon.

  5. petur

    Look further than mobiles

    Given the Moblin -> Meego -> Tizen progression, and the fact that Moblin was used quite a lot in automotive, it should not be surprising that lots of Tizen talks at Fosdem were actually automotive related...

  6. Jess

    Surely multiple OS choices for one handset would be the answer?

    Since Tizen, sailfish, firefox, ubuntu and android are all linux they would all be able to use the same or at least similar drivers, surely?

    Presumably android would become a premium option due to the Microsoft patents, (unless there were a cut down option too)

    1. fishman

      Re: Surely multiple OS choices for one handset would be the answer?

      Just like with android, Microsoft will probably go after any company that offers at tizen phone.

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

      2. eulampios

        going after Google

        go after any company that offers at tizen phone.

        Did they go after Google for exactly this? No, they only have a Ballmer's chair-hurtling syndrome, thanks to the famous bald guy.

        When they do go after a company, they make a big secret of how much is paid and where the money ends up eventually.

  7. Waspy

    What makes Tizen any different to other mobile oses?

    Good reporting on the state (or lack of any state) of Tizen in the marketplace but I take issue with one opinion in this article - that of the Jolla phone and Sailfish being underwhelming. Sure it's still very much a hobbyist OS right now but it does so many things right, and the Jolla hardware, whilst not being top spec is perfectly adequate for the job and nice looking too.

    The main thing that keeps me with Sailfish is true, unbridled multi-tasking, something I loved from Symbian, webOS and MeeGo Harmattan, all now obviously dead (there seems to be a pattern here, hopefully only coincidental...). Evidence would suggest that consumers couldn't care less about real multi-tasking (that or they do not know what it is/what they are missing) but for me personally I wouldn't go near a Tizen handset unless it had this feature. I've used several androids in the past and I currently have an iPad and the awful hacked on pseudo-multitasking drives me nuts - web pages constantly have to reload when I go back to them, streaming services have to reload, things log out etc.

    if any when a device comes out, and If Tizen was to differentiate itself, maybe that is one way it could do so.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Everyone is waiting for someone else to do the hard work

    If someone else pushes it and makes it successful, everyone currently making Android phones will jump in with both feet to add Tizen phones to their line.

    But for now it looks like they're all signing up "just in case". Just in case someone does that hard work. Just in case Android takes a direction they/customers don't like. Just in case they need the threat of it to keep Google in line.

  9. Hubert Thrunge Jr.

    Phone phone phone phone.....no..!

    Just because it *can* be a phone OS, doesn't mean it *has* to be a phone OS.

    As has been said previously in this forum, Moblin has been used in automotive applications, among others.

    Meego was touted a automotive, media devices, and much more, but only really hit the mobile world via Harmattan on the Nokia N9.

    Tizen is a step further on from that, and is aimed at Intel hardware in various situations from industrial control, right through to ..... mobile devices.

    SailfishOS carries on that theme. Not just aimed at mobile phones, even though Jolla have created a great "beta test" device.

    So stop fretting about it "not taking off as a phone OS". If it does, it does, if it doesn't it doesn't.

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