By Jonathan Cheng
SEOUL-- Samsung Electronics Co. said Monday it would postpone
sales in Russia of a smartphone running a homegrown operating
system called Tizen, dealing a fresh setback to the Korean
smartphone maker's efforts to carve out a niche for itself in
mobile software and services.
In a brief statement Monday, Samsung said that it was postponing
the launch of the Samsung Z, which was slated to go on sale in
Russia in the third quarter of this year.
The company cited a need to "further enhance [the] Tizen
ecosystem," a reference to an apparent shortage of apps for the
nascent platform. The company didn't offer specifics on any future
plans for the operating system, or on the timing of any coming
Tizen smartphone launches.
The delay is the latest postponement for an ill-fated project
that Samsung has pursued for several years in an attempt to shape
more of the user experience--and reap more of the profits--in the
smartphone era.
While Samsung handily outsells its handset rivals, almost all of
its mobile devices run Google Inc.'s Android operating system,
giving the Mountain View, Calif.-based search giant control over
most of the activity that takes place on users' devices.
Samsung has in the past attempted to tweak how Android looks and
feels on its devices, but the move has been met with opposition by
Google, which allows phone manufacturers to use the operating
system for free, but which has frowned on significant alterations
to its software.
That leaves Tizen as Samsung's main channel for reaching users
without Google's intermediation. In the past few months, Samsung
has released smartwatches and cameras that run Tizen, and has shown
off prototypes of Tizen televisions and smartphones.
At the same time, it has attempted to cultivate a so-called
ecosystem of software and services by supporting app developers
with contests and, in some cases, direct subsidies to develop apps
for Tizen.
However, Tizen smartphones have suffered from a string of
last-minute stumbles. In January, NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's largest
carrier, abruptly called off its plans to launch a Samsung
smartphone running Tizen. France's Orange SA, another key backer of
the project , also shelved its plans.
Just months later, in June, J.D. Choi, the lead Samsung engineer
on the Tizen project, stood on a stage in San Francisco and held up
a prototype Samsung Z smartphone. He said at the time that the
phone would be released in Russia in the third quarter, to audience
applause.
But at a developers' conference for Tizen in Moscow earlier this
month, the planned rollout of the device was again scrapped at the
last minute, leaving developers scratching their heads.
With the latest delay, it is unclear what Samsung's next move
will be. Eldar Murtazin, a Moscow-based technology analyst and
blogger who first raised the possibility on Monday of further
setbacks to the Tizen smartphone, cited unnamed sources who said
that the Samsung Z smartphone "won't arrive in 2014 at all" in
Russia.
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