Samsung Launches First Tizen OS Based Smartphone In India

Samsung has launched its first Tizen operating system based smartphone in India. Tizen is Samsung's own operating system powering its smartwatches, TVs, appliances and now a phone.

Samsung Z1 sports a 4-inch display, powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor coupled with 4GB internal memory. It supports external memory up to 64GB with a microSD card.

Samsung initially had planned to release the first Tizen OS based smartphone in Russia, but delayed and eventually cancelled the launch, stating it wanted to spend more time working to "enhance the Tizen ecosystem."

Samsung says the Samsung Z1, featuring Tizen OS, has been "designed to meet the entertainment-focused needs of Indian consumers."

Customers buying the phone will get a free entertainment package named Joy Box, that includes music, film and TV access, alongside streaming of more than 2million English and Bollywood for free for three months.

Tizen operating system has been developed to facilitate Samsung's vision of Internet of Things. The operating system already powers Gear S. It would also run on smart TVs to be released in 2015 and plethora of other home appliances such as washing machine and fridges, making communication among them efficient.

Tizen OS has been designed to run apps written in HTML5, however, it would take some time before native apps in abundance become available to its users.