“Samsung Electronics Co Ltd’s first smartphone to run on its own operating system received a frosty welcome after its launch in India, with reviewers and consumers criticising its low-resolution cameras and dearth of software applications,” Nivedita Bhattacharjee reports for Reuters. “”
“The South Korean giant’s latest handset stands out not so much for its no-frills specifications but for what lies under the hood – the Tizen operating system Samsung has developed to rival Google Inc’s Android platform,” Bhattacharjee reports. “Samsung is hoping the Z1 will catch on in the world’s third-largest smartphone market, boosting its flagging global market share and gaining a foothold for Tizen among India’s first-time smartphone buyers.”
“But the initial reaction of analysts and consumers after its Jan. 14 launch suggests the Z1 will struggle to get ahead of a crowded field in a country with about 280 smartphone brands on offer, led by Samsung and closely followed by Indian maker Micromax Informatics Ltd.,” Bhattacharjee reports. “‘Samsung has been delaying the launch of this Tizen phone for a long time and when they finally did it, it turned out to be an under-powered phone,’ said Mumbai-based filmmaker Samir Ahmed Sheikh as he shopped for a new phone for his wife. The 3.15 megapixel primary camera and 300,000 pixel front camera are ‘like a phone from 2010,’ he said.”
“Another problem for any Tizen-powered phone is Samsung’s failure to excite software developers to tailor applications like games for the platform, analysts said,” Bhattacharjee reports. “Samsung says more than 1,000 apps will be available for download in the Tizen Store… [In contrast, Apple’s App Store offers over 1.3 million apps].”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Operating systems are hard. Much harder than skinning an off-the-shelf OS to look like Apple’s iOS.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Kian” for the heads up.]
Related article:
Samsung places bet on its ‘Tizen’ operating system – January 14, 2015
It’s refreshing to confirm the width of Apple’s moat.
So, why would anyone buy a device running an OS for which there are almost no apps? Microsoft was in this same position two years ago, and continues to languish there, despite pouring massive amounts of money into incentives for developers to port their stuff for their platform, as well as heavily subsidising hardware (with real, actual subsidies, and not what the carriers do, with two-year financing on a full retail price).
Today, you can buy a new, off-the-shelf, no-name, Chinese-made Android phone starting at $50 (running one of the more recent versions of Android). The phone will have a crappy processor, crappy camera, meager memory and storage, low screen resolution, but it will be a stock, generic Android, and will run hundreds of thousands of apps on the Google Play store. Why then would anyone spend more money for a Samsung (or a Nokia, for that matter) that has almost no apps to run?
Exactly!
For the same reason no one wants to buy a new cheep car when they can buy a used good quality car for an even lower price.
What a surprise … Junk!
Whoops .. I stand to correct myself…. MORE JUNK!
On Apple Mac OS… “We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent OS.” “These electronic, refrigerator, TV guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”
Now THAT is a statement that if former Palm CEO Edward Cooligan made back in 2007 regarding Samsung and Apple Mac OS, I could believe!
And one never gets a second chance to make a first (good) impression.
Soooo screwed. 😆 😂 😹 😎 😎
Am I the only one left who likes competition in the marketplace?
Apple doesn’t serve everyone’s needs. Apple doesn’t even try to serve everyone. With MS having destroyed Nokia’s broad range of phones, obviously someone needs to move in to offer lower cost models as an alternative to Google’s crap.
The problem is that apparently Samsung’s OS sucks so much that it doesn’t provide much competition.
Copying is NOT competition.
So where is the competition?
Samsung? No. Copies Apple.
Xomi (sic) No. Copies Apple even more.
LG? Motorola? Wa-Wai? ….No, for the same reasons.
Come out with a unique competing idea and people will embrace it. Apple lovers included.
He’s referring to Samsung’s Android phones as copying iOS. Not Samsung’s Tizen phone.
Sigh. As usual, Reuters gives us virtually no information on what the OS does or does not do, or on whether the phone succeeds at making calls and texting (you know, those phone things people buy a phone for). Wonder if the article was written by anyone who has ever used a phone? Reporters’ ignorance about the subjects they cover is practically endless.
Tizen’t any good.
Samsung is not going to get the Indian market.
It’s being taken fought over by Nokia, oneplus1, xiaomi and hundreds of cheap android manufacturers you have never heard of.