Samsung's Tizen, Firefox OS and Ubuntu OS to unseat Google Android by 2015 - How Linux and HTML 5 are Oz the Great and Powerful for Open Source

“If we become a dumb pipe, our revenue will continue to shrink.”

Kiyohito Nagata, Managing Director of Strategic Marketing for NTT DoCoMo and a member of the Tizen Association.

The LiMO (Linux Mobile) Foundation looks set to get new lease on life by going mobile on smartphones and Tablets in a form of a new Linux Base OS as Samsung bids to become more like Apple. 

Samsung, a longtime member of the LiMo Foundation since 2007, has made the official announcement earlier on Thursday January 3^rd 2013 that smartphones based on their in-house Linux core based Operating System, Tizen OS as stated in “Samsung to Sell Tizen-Based Handsets After Motorola Deal”, published January 3, 2013 4:52 AM ET By Jungah Lee, Bloomberg and “Samsung: Tizen Linux phones will arrive in 2013”, published January 3, 2013 10:10 AM by Katherine Noyes, PCWorld.

Tizen OS is designed in partnership with Intel, would debut by the Second Quarter of 2013 as stated in “Samsung confirms Tizen based handsets for 2013”, published January 3, 2013 5:26 AM PST by Don Reisinger, CNET News  and “Samsung ups the ante with Intel, plans for Tizen smartphones”, published JANUARY 3, 2013 BY JOSHUA SHERMAN, DigitalTrends.

Tizen OS, has the full backing of the Linux Foundation, is a partnership between  Samsung, chip maker Intel who’ll be making the mobile chipsets for Tizen OS handsets and developing the forerunner of Tizen OS, that being MeeGo. Tizen OS is based on the failed results of Intel and Nokia’s MeeGo Project and marks Samsung’s second attempt to develop their own OS for their smartphone and Tablets.

This is aside from Bada OS, which translates form Korean to mean “Wide Ocean”, which had reached version 2.0 as stated in the Geezam Blog article “Samsung’s “bada” mobile operating system gets updated to 2.0”, and had made its debut at the Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona in February 2010 but failed to catch on with customers, only achieving 4^th Place spot globally in the smartphone Operating System Stats globally.

Tizen OS promises to be literally Open Source on a smartphone, allowing Developers to change whatever the like, including the basic interface of the smartphone down to the deep inner kernel of the OS, something which Google Android allows but will not support. With Tizen OS combined with Samsung’s market Dominance, they have a clear shot at occupying the Third tier spot in the ever expanding Smartphone and Tablet OS race as noted in “Samsung Tizen-based smartphones could contend for 3rd place behind Android and iOS”, published January 3, 2013 17:19 GMT (09:19 PST By Matthew Miller, ZDNet.

LiMo Foundation hopes to replicate the success of Linux platform Ubuntu in the PC world in the form of Canonical’s Ubuntu partnership with Dell in the smartphone world using Tizen as a starting point. Tizen’s aims is to basically wean Developers and Customers alike off Google Android and onto using a Intel Processor friendly and more modifiable and Developer Friendly Open Source OS as argued in the article “Tizen Is The Fulcrum Samsung Can Use Against Android And Google”, published January 5th 2012 by Ewan Spence, Forbes.

Tizen OS’s Open Source roots makes it easy for Developers to port their Google Android App already popular with customers on Google Android devices over via Tizen OS Application Compatibility Layer in keeping with the original spirit of Open Source. This feature, combined with Samsung’s market dominance of the smartphone industry, is sure to be an attraction to many Developers.

Samsung’s Tizen OS and the current popularity of smartphones presents a very compelling argument for new and experienced Developers, with Samsung and Apple, the two top dogs in the smartphone and Tablet World having  shipped a total of 700 million handsets globally in all of 2012 as noted in “Samsung, Apple dominate as 700M smartphones ship in 2012”, published January 24, 2013 8:29 PM PST by Steven Musil, CNET News.

For them, the Tizen OS represents the next big OS platform for which to develop or port existing smartphone or Tablet Apps as both App stores grow in size with Apple declaring they’ve clocked some 40 billion downloads to date with 20 billion in 2012 as noted in “Apple App Store hits 40 billion downloads; 20 billion in 2012, alone”, published January 7, 2013 5:39 AM PST by Don Reisinger, CNET News.

This as the App Economy shows no signs of slowing down boosted by the expansion of Mobile computing as noted in my blog article entitled “Amazon set to launch smartphone in Fourth Quarter of 2012AD - The App Economy and the Increasing Importance of Digical Content”.

Tizen OS’s design is based on the Linux OS kernel for mobile devices and is designed with support for more sophisticated Apps based on HTML5. It’s development is being driven by suggestions from Engineers and Technicians from Samsung and Intel, Tizen OS’s main minders, instead of committees as was the case in previous failed attempts at a mobile phone OS such as Bada OS as described in the Geezam Blog article “Samsung’s “bada” mobile operating system gets updated to 2.0”.

The group also consists of Telecom Providers such as Japanese Telecom Provider NTT DoCoMo and US Telecom Provider sprint Nextel who had previously stated support for Samsung’s own home-grown Linux based HTML5 supporting Mobile Operating system according to a report by Japan's Daily Yomiuri in the article Samsung to sell first “Tizen smartphone next year, report says”, published December 31, 2012 4:32 AM PST by Roger Cheng, CNET News.

The success of this latest smartphone and Tablet OS venture is very essential for Samsung, as albeit they sold more phones than Apple in the Third Quarter of 2012 according to the stats of analyst Gartner as stated in “Samsung outdoes Apple 2-to-1 in smartphones; Nokia falters”, published October 26, 2012 5:45 AM PDT by Don Reisinger, CNET News and the stats of analyst IDC as noted in “Smartphone sales up 47 percent as Android increases its lead”, published November 14, 2012 3:21 AM PST by Zack Whittaker, CNET News as shown below, they make less money from continue Advertising and App Store content sales, most of which goes to Google owned Android.

Albeit Samsung and other smartphone maker success in the smartphone game against Apple, to the point of having the top smartphone in the world for 2012, the Samsung Galaxy S3 as reported in “Samsung Galaxy S3 as stated in Galaxy S3 claims top spot in smartphones worldwide”, published November 8, 2012 4:28 AM PST by Zack Whittaker, CNET News and being one of the Top 2 smartphones makers in world alongside Apple as stated in “Apple, Samsung U.S. smartphone sales jump 43 percent”, published August 8, 2012 6:08 AM PDT by Lance Whitney, CNET News, Samsung only makes money from handset sales.

Samsung makes less money from its OS, mainly taking in revenue from handset sales as opposed its main rival Apple that makes money both from handset sales as well as App Store purchases and even advertising from the use of its browser, Safari as noted in the article “Mobile Manufacturers Part III: Apple Makes More Money”, published January 9, 2013, Seeking Alpha .

In fact, Apple’s App Store, despite Google Play App Store needing only another 25,000 Apps to be on par, still makes more money, according to App analytics firm Distimo as stated in the article “Google Play is growing faster, but Apple’s App Store brings in way more money: Distimo”, published 20 December 2012 by Andrii Degeler, The Next Web and “Google Play surges, but Apple's App Store is still No. 1”, published December 20, 2012 7:03 AM PST by Lance Whitney, CNET News.

The Apple App Store’s clocking approximately US$15 million in average daily revenue in November 2012, mainly from in-app Purchases from Freemium Apps as well as Premium Apps, when compared to US$$3.5 million in average daily revenue achieved by Google Play App Store as I’d predicted with regards to App Games in my Geezam blog article entitled “Smartphones and Apps – Freemium Games are No. 1”.

This expanded revenue stream has caught Samsung’s eye as a means of capitalizing on its lead in terms of smartphones. Hence Samsung’s continued interest in developing a smartphone platform with Intel despite the failure of Bada OS as described in “Samsung's secret weapon in the mobile Wars: Tizen”, published January 17, 2013 12:34 PM PST by Roger Cheng, CNET News.

Worse yet is the plight of Telecom Providers!

Telecom Providers only make money from the two (2) years subscriptions and the Tiered Data Plans, which are mandatory with the purchase of a smartphone. As such, additional continued revenue streams such as Google Search, advertising related to search on Google Search and purchase of Apps at Google Play and the purchase of other content still evade the Telecom Providers and Handset makers if they continue to use Google Android. Hence their committed support for Samsung and Intel’s Tizen OS!

 Intel’s support of Tizen represents a last-ditch effort to gain some traction in the Mobile computing world, from which they’ve been largely missing and for which their only answer thus far has been a Dual-Core Atom Chip as reported in my blog article entitled  “Intel showcases Dual-Core Z2760 Atom Processor, codenamed Clover Trail for Win 8 – End of Watch for PC Makers who must get into the Tablet Game”.

So to make it absolutely clear, Samsung is aiming to become more like Apple via its development of the Tizen OS as Google’s hindering them from making money from the OS and even Search, which Samsung does not own. Samsung’s aware that Google Android got them to the top spot in the Smartphone and Tablet market, but they’re interested in getting a slice of the App Economy via having their own OS, again copying Apple.

The last time I had such glowing accolades to pile on the Linux OS head was when HP (Hewlett Packard) had launched their Web OS on their HP TouchPad line of Tablets which was at the time a very big endorsement of Open Source by a Silicon Valley PC maker as noted in my Geezam blog article entitled “HP and Web OS – 2011 is the Year of the Linux on PC”.

This time around Samsung have no choice but to succeed.

Already, others Mobile OS are in the wings, ready to become the next big thing in the growing Mobile Computing Market of Smartphones and Tablets, namely Mozilla Firefox OS and Ubuntu OS as stated in “Ubuntu, Firefox line up to take on iOS, Android in 2013”, published January 3, 2013 9:44 AM by Ian Paul, PC World. Both Mozilla Corporation, makers of Firefox OS and Canonical, makers of Ubuntu OS have a good chance, as both Mozilla Corporation and Canonical have had a few years of experience in Search Engine and Mobile computing, specifically in making Laptops respectively.

For them porting their already Open Source projects to a smartphone or a Tablet as a Mobile OS is the next natural evolution. With Mobile Computing expanding and slowly killing off Laptops and Desktop computers as argued in my Geezam blog article entitled “How the Apple iPad killed Ultrabooks, Printing and the Mouse as the World Rediscovers Tablets”, they actually have no choice in the matter.  

They have to go into Mobile Computing i.e. Smartphones and Tablets in order to continue to survive even just as a Browser (Firefox) or as an Operating system (Ubuntu). Thus Firefox OS as described in my Geezam blog article entitled “How to reset the default Search Engine in Mozilla Firefox” and Ubuntu OS  as stated in “Ubuntu OS smartphones tapped for late 2013”, published January 2, 2013 10:57 AM PST by Jessica Dolcourt, CNET News are really survival strategies, should the Laptop and PC business finally succumb to Tablets and smartphones by 2015.

Thus with their entry into the Mobile Computing market, there is now a total of eight (8) OS’, including themselves namely:

1.      Android

2.      iOS

3.      Windows Phone 8

4.      Blackberry 10

5.      Firefox OS

6.      Ubuntu OS

7.      Tizen

8.      Web OS

Thus despite complaints from some quarters, such as CNET Editor Jessica Dolcourt that there are too many smartphone OS and the field is already too crowded as opined in “No, we don't really need another smartphone OS”, published January 2, 2013 3:11 PM PST by Jessica Dolcourt, CNET News at least this is achieving the much needed biodiversity in terms of OS in the smartphone world as I’d opined in my blog article entitled “Microsoft and Windows Phone 7 - Love Potion Number Nine”.

As this is the Chinese Year of the Snake, the potential that these Linux-based Open Source OS that have full support for HTML5 and can port and run Google Android Apps have to make it big in rapidly expanding Mobile Computing space, especially Samsung’s Tizen OS, is tremendous and represents the coming of yet another Smartphone Wizard in the shadow of Oz the Great and Powerful (2013).