Samsung's Z9000 ZEQ smartphone running Tizen OS to debut at MWC 2014 - Kickstarter Splash of Gold in the Chinese Year of the Horse makes The Pretty One Gallop

“Tizen faces the dual hurdle of not only creating an ecosystem, but convincing partners that it’s not solely in the interests of one player, Samsung. If Tizen struggles to secure broader manufacturer commitment beyond Samsung, the challenge for carriers is what supporting another platform really achieves. Success is likely to be heavily dependent on incentives from Samsung.”

Industry expert Geoff Blaber of CCS Insight commenting on the rejection of the first set of Tizen smartphone by NTT DoCoMo

Samsung has a problem, a Dilemma if you will.

How do you get people to like a new OS that can make them more money via having their own App Store when they already like Google Android? This as they faced yet another setback when NTT DoCoMo rejected their plans to launch their first smartphone running Tizen OS as stated in the article “Sorry Samsung, first Tizen phone cancelled by network”, published 17 January 2014, 12:21pm By Rich Trenholm, CNET UK.

Classic putdown by NTT DoCoMo as per the words of their representative, quote: “The market is not big enough to support three operating systems at this time”. Good to note NTT DoCoMo isn’t being truthful, as they’re really afraid of becoming Samsung Guinea pig to test and untried Smartphone with an experimental albeit road-tested LiMo (Linux Mobile) OS.

Especially as they’re facing problems with the loss of a significant portion of their customer base to rivals Softbank and KDDI thanks ironically to the Apple iPhone as concluded in my blog article entitled “Apple iPhone 5S Shortages in Japan affecting NTT DoCoMo - Sales going to their competitors SoftBank and KDDI as Global Apple iPhone Shortages ensue”.

NTT DoCoMo trying to recover lost Ground – Apple iPhone 5S their chance against KDDI and Softbank

NTT DoCoMo has since gotten their Apple Sauce in place now that they and China Mobile are officially carrying the Apple iPhone as stated in my blog article entitled “Apple and China Mobile seal deal on Apple iPhone 5S and 5C - Prepare for the Arrival of The Hobbit and The Desolation of Smaug in Samsung's own backyard”.

So they may not be in the mood to try a new smartphone with an untested OS, even if it is from big bad Samsung and even it does look gorgeous as per the photos in “Samsung's first Tizen phone shows off Galaxy style”, published 28 January 2014, 12:02pm, published by Rich Trenholm, CNET UK.

Still Samsung can keep their chin up, as from the rumoured screenshots of the Samsung Z9000 ZEQ, it obviously needs more work as opined in “Samsung’s leaked Tizen-powered smartphone, the Z9000 Zeq, looks boringly familiar”, published January 28, 2014 By Andy Boxall, DigitalTrends, especially in terms of its very unsexy name.

The specs for the Samsung Z9000 ZEQ based on the leak from the Korean Tech Website (for those who can read Korean) are sketch at best:

1.      Processor: 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 Processor

2.      OS: Tizen

3.      Screen: 4.8-inches

4.      Resolution: 1280 x 720 pixel resolution

Not much to go on, but if it’s a Budget smartphone as I’d predicted at the last MWC (Mobile World Congress) in 2013 when I was expecting it launch in September 2013 in my blog article entitled “MWC 2013 reveals Firefox OS & Tizen OS launching Second & Third Quarter 2013 respectively - Samsung's Despicable Me 2 & Mozilla practices The ABC's of Death” then its ability to run ported Android Apps, a sub-US$200 price point will make it a quick seller.

Samsung needs to Ramp up – 64-Bit Sapphire Splash of Gold in the Chinese Year of the Horse

A splash of Gold on the Samsung Z9000 ZEQ as was the case with the Samsung Galaxy S4 that was slated for Saudi Arabia with a Gold finish as reported in my blog article entitled “Samsung promises Golden Samsung Galaxy S4 for Gulf and Saudi smartphone customers - Samsung the copycat may have begun an Arab Spring for Golden smartphones”.

Hopefully too, a versions of the Samsung Z9000 ZEQ may get the same Golden or Honey Brown treatment, as gold “bling” is in right now, based on the popularity of the Golden Apple iPhone 5S, which had it debut in a TV spot back in October 2013 as per the article “Selling gold: Apple debuts its first iPhone 5S TV spot”, published October 20, 2013 02:50 pm By Ellis Hamburger, The Verge.

Finally, Samsung can post the Samsung Z9000 ZEQ on Kickstarter as a way to garner support for the smartphone. Albeit they and Intel have a lot of cash to splash and develop the phone, the engagement isn’t there. Having persons get a serious discount for just supporting the smartphone development via donation on Kickstarter will demonstrate that this is a people’s phone.

Even better if the Kickstarter page would create a Developers and Customer’s forum to get input from people and Developers as to what exactly they want from the Tizen experience so it could be tailored better before its officially launches later in 2014.

I draw also upon the experience of their rival Canonical and their Ubuntu Edge smartphone.

Curiously Canonical is also facing similar delays, with their Ubuntu Touch OS not being expected to launch until 2015 due to a lack of cash and very slow development of the OS, which is stall at versions 1.0 as stated in “Ubuntu Touch smartphones not expected to get a major release until 2015”, published January 16, 2014 -- 12:30 GMT (04:30 PST) By Nick Heath, ZDNet.

Canonical’s IndieGogo Crowdfunding push failed to hit the US$32 million mark needed to get their project off the ground as stated in “Ubuntu Edge Smartphone Fails To Hit Ambitious $32M Crowdfunding Target”, published Aug 22, 2013 by Natasha Lomas, TechCrunch.

But it pointed the way towards the development of smartphones in the future, as Canonical’s run still stands as the largest crowdfunding run in history, reaching US$12 million, which for a brief moment surpassed the smartwatch Pebble which came in at a modest US$10.2 million.

Samsung could aim to raise just a smaller amount, not millions but enough to give potential customer around the world a chance to own the development of a smartphone form the ground up. Then when the phone launches, not only would it be customer fitted to the customer, but it would also come at a significant discount representative of the level of donation by the individual contributors. A true people’s smartphone!

Samsung, go Golden with the Tizen OS smartphone and Crowdfund it on Kickstarter would be my simple advice! The funding round would be smashing hit and it’ll sell as cash and a brand name aren’t the only ways to sell Tizen as stated in “With Tizen, Samsung Bets on Cash, Clout”, published Feb 2, 2014 0:54 pm, Wall Street Journal; people need to feel the product as being something that they own as well!

Some Sapphire would also add an excellent touch to this beauty to make it both Golden and Unbreakable as the Year of the Horse is also the year of Sapphire Screens as predicted in my blog article entitled “Sapphire Screens for smartphones by Q1 2014 - Unscratchable Sign of Virgo is the Man of Steel to revive Jamaican Alumina Industry”.

Especially as Apple has allegedly shifted into high gear to make Sapphire screens for smartphones in a massive plant in Arizona as reported in “Report: Apple Preps Sapphire Plant for Tougher iPhone Screens”, published Feb. 07, 2014 By Jared Newman, Time Tech. So Samsung really has no choice; to make Tizen OS sell, it’s got to be packaged in the same skin as its competitor, the Apple iPhone 5S!

Finally a 64-bit Processor and hardware specs to match will make this a must-have smartphone, as it’ll be future proof as per the promise of Samsung for the Samsung Galaxy S5 as stated in “Will There Be Enough In The Galaxy S5 To Compete With The iPhone 5S?”, published 2/05/2014 @ 7:59AM by Haydn Shaughnessy, Forbes and “Samsung Meets With ARM to Discuss 64-Bit CPU for 2014 Galaxy S5, 128-bit Chips”, published November 21, 2013 1:40 PM by Jason Mick, Daily Tech.

 After all, Apple already has 64-bit in the Apple iPhone 5S as reported my blog article entitled “Apple has launched the Apple iPhone 5S and 5C on Tuesday September 10th 2013 - Apple iPhone Strategy is to Go Global to beat Samsung”. Why not their new flagship Tizen OS powered Samsung Z9000 ZEQ? Shouldn’t it have the best also to compete against the best?

Can’t wait till MWC (Mobile World Congress) 2014 on Monday February 24^th 2014 to see all the latest and greatest in the smartphone World….and what enhancements Samsung has made to the Samsung Z9000 ZEQ!