During the Consumer Electronics Show, Samsung announced that the company is working on merging its Bada mobile operating system with the open-source Tizen operating system. “We have an effort that will merge bada and Tizen,” said Tae-Jin Kan, senior vice president of Samsung’s Contents Planning Team, in an interview with Forbes. While he wasn’t aware when the work would be complete, Kang indicated that is has already begun. Read on for more.
The Tizen operating system is open-source and backed by Intel and the Linux Foundation. When the Bada integration is complete, Tizen will support programs written with Samsung’s Bada SDK, including both new and previously published apps.
Samsung is currently the second-largest cellphone maker in the world, with devices powered by four major operating systems. By focusing on its own operating system, Samsung would have more control over its devices and a greater opportunity to differentiate its products from its competitors. By merging the two operating systems, Samsung hopes existing bada developers will transition to Tizen.
At least one or two Tizen-powered devices will be released by Samsung this year, however the company does not plan to abandon Android or Windows Phone. “Tizen will not become Samsung’s main operating platform anytime soon,” said Kang.
