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Samsung and Microsoft partner up to expand Tizen
The South Korean electronics giant announced its partnership with Microsoft to bring more developers to its open source operating system, Tizen.
Samsung is slowly expanding its Tizen portfolio – mainly in the form of smartwatches and smart TVs – but while the open source OS gives the company more freedom and autonomy compared to, say, Android, the major drawback here is that Tizen just doesn’t have enough apps. Look at the recently launched Gear S3, for instance: its specs are undoubtedly one of the best out there, if not the best. The design is flawless (at least in my opinion), but there is a huge problem aside from its price tag: apps are lacking and the quality of those that are available isn’t all too great.
Well, it seems like Samsung is really convinced that Tizen has the potential to grow. The company has announced today that it would be collaborating with Microsoft on “open source projects, such as .NET Core and Xamarin.Forms” in order to facilitate .NET support for Tizen. .NET is a Microsoft-developed framework that helps developers create apps more easily.
In fact, Samsung will be releasing the first preview of Visual Studio Tools for Tizen today for .NET developers:
The first preview supports mobile application development with device emulators and an extension to Visual Studio with full IntelliSense and debugging capabilities. Support for Smart TVs, wearables, and other IoT devices will be added in future releases.
On top of that, Samsung released open source codes for Tizen RT, which is currently used in its smart fridges and AC units. According to the company, there are over 50 million devices powered by Tizen right now, and it’s only set to grow further. The success of Tizen will largely depend on its app support, so I’m curious to see how this collaboration will contribute to the growth of what Samsung seems to think is the next OS.
The success of Tizen will largely depend on its app support, so I’m curious to see how this collaboration will contribute to the growth of what Samsung seems to think is the next OS.
Would you switch to Tizen if its app support were significantly better? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below!