Samsung: Tizen phone and Android Wear smartwatch coming this year

Home / News / Samsung: Tizen phone and Android Wear smartwatch coming this year

A Samsung executive has confirmed that the company plans to launch a Tizen-based smartphone and an Android Wear-based smartwatch before the end of 2014.

Speaking to Reuters, Yoon Han-kil, senior vice president of product strategy at Samsung, said that at least two phones sporting the Tizen operating system were in the works – and that the first, a high-end model, was due to launch around the end of the second quarter of 2014 (likely May).

Samsung will still rely on Android as the main platform for its smartphones, but hopes that Tizen – developed in-house and debuted in the Gear 2 smartwatch – will eventually account for at least 15 percent of its handsets.

Speaking of smartwatches, Yoon had something to say on those, too: first, that Samsung eventually wants its Gear watches to be compatible with all Android smartphones rather than just its own Galaxy devices; and second, that it plans to launch an Android Wear smartwatch later this year.

Seems like Samsung thinks there’s plenty of scope for it to enjoy the best of both worlds.

[Via Reuters]

About

Tech journalism's answer to The Littlest Hobo, I've written for a host of titles and lived in three different countries in my 15 years-plus as a freelancer. But I've always come back home to Stuff eventually, where I specialise in writing about cameras, streaming services and being tragically addicted to Destiny.