Tim Bajarin:
I think Samsung is working toward ditching Android completely sometime over the next three to five years to take complete control over its future. And this is where the backing of Tizen becomes interesting and important. Although Tizen has not attracted a lot of app support to date, if Samsung gets behind it and is able to prove to the market it will continue innovate around the platform, delivering hundreds of millions of smartphones and tablets annually under its brand, software developers would be crazy not to develop for it.
I’ve said it before—I think this is exactly what is going to happen. Without Samsung, Google’s importance in the mobile industry will be nowhere near what it is today.
I thought the “millions of devices” argument was stupid, and that’s why iOS has a better app ecosystem. Why would developers jump to Tizen any quicker than they develop for Android?
Not sure I agree with Jim’s summation or the excerpt from the article. Sheer numbers do not drive app development as we’ve seen with the iOS/Android fight over developer mindshare. With regard to Jim’s commentary, I think Android (and this is from an iOS user) is a force unto itself, Samsung just happens to be the manufacturer du jour. At one point it was HTC, at another it was LG, etc. Samsung has a lot of power in manufacturing but their software additions/skinning of Android are crap. Samsung and Google need each other a lot more than either realizes.
I think some vandal added a clause to your close, Jim. What you meant to say was: Without Samsung, Google’s importance in the mobile industry will be nowhere.
Both companies don’t realize how much they depend on each other. However, I think Android will fare much better without Samsung than Samsung will fare without Android. Samsung is the one who needs Android more than Android needs them.
Creating awful and craptastics skins over an OS is a completely different ball game than creating and managing an entire software platform/development environment. When a company like Microsoft, who has decades experience managing a very robust software platform, struggles to compete, what makes Samsung think they can just waltz in and be anywhere near the robustness of iOS or even Android? iOS has very powerful frameworks and APIs for software development that have been refined and iterated for a decade, and iOS 7 introduced even more powerful and sophisticated APIs to enable developers to do more. If Samsung can’t even make a half-decent skin on top of an already existing OS, they don’t stand a chance to create the whole thing.
I think you can see a lot of lack of taste and discrimination in the average Android user. (It’s not that Android users with taste and discrimination don’t exist, they’re just not the majority.)
Absolutely Samsung could drop Android and keep a large percentage of its customers. I don’t know if that percentage is 30% or 95%, but it could be enough to make this a profitable move for them. The remainder would probably split across Android manufacturers. Which might just make Google more powerful, given how little control they exert over Samsung.
Samsung’s Android phones are the only ones selling, not the Windows phones or feature phones, people want Samsung Android Phones. So I don’t think Samsung will have any luck at all from their Tizen platform because Google won’t make apps for it, game companies won’t make apps for it unless they get tons of money up front, and most lastly Samsung is horrible at software, Tizen won’t go anywhere.
Wouldn’t it be funny if Samsung copied Android?
Android is open, right? Samsung could for it, and make “SamOS” with the exact same APIs if they want to.
And Android has no mindshare with regular people. Ask them what Android is and they won’t be able to tell you. A small percentage might say “something in my phone” but that’s about it.
Yep, Samsung could easily drop Android. Android would not fare as well without Samsung.
I think they know the story of the PC desktop/w windows and the race to the bottom. Then Samsung looks at Apple and lusts at it’s revenue stream but still doesn’t get it.
I don’t think they could keep a large percentage of their customers, because right now their Android phones are the only one selling, not Windows Phones or feature phones. If it was purely the Samsung brand than the sales of their other phones would not be much closer to the Android Sales.
Samsung’s Android phones are the ones selling, not Samsung phones.
Google doesn’t charge for Android, they benefit from ad hits through their services. Should Samsung go with Tizen and be successful—a big IF — would not Google develop for it like they do with iOS and Windows phone? Google wins either way, Samsung would be taking the only financial risk.
It would be much smarter to do what Amazon has done with Android. It forked it and made Fire OS. The benefits are compelling. It is compatible with Android apps so all that’s required would be for Android devs to publish to Samsung’s SAndroid marketplace – None of the headaches and HUGE costs of trying to create a 4th player in the ecosystem game.
The problem is, as more than a few of them start to use apps beyond the built-in minimal ones, they … notice that Tizen doesn’t have any.
Tizen could probably snaffle up a lot of people who use a smartphone as a glorified featurephone, but … that’s not the future, and that’s not where the money is going.
I doubt they’d have much trouble keeping 30%.
If they did that they woudn’t have access to any apps, and Google wouldn’t make any apps for them
There will be much more fragmentation in the smartphone world as time goes on. Microsoft seems to making the long play strategy. Firefox OS is entering the k=market. Tizen will emerge.
Most people I know who use Android wanted a Samsung or HTC phone, identifying the mfg. as the operating system.
The market is still expanding. Fringe operating systems still have room to garner some form of marketshare.
I think Apple knows this and is counting on increased Android fragmentation in their future plans.
If the people you mentioned wanted a certain manufacturer why didn’t they pick an HTC or Samsung Windows Phone, it would have been much cheaper.
Because those other platforms aren’t as developed as Android. Which is what will happen to Tizen.
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There will be much more fragmentation in the smartphone world as time goes on. Microsoft seems to making the long play strategy. Firefox OS is entering the k=market. Tizen will emerge.
Most people I know who use Android wanted a Samsung or HTC phone, identifying the mfg. as the operating system.
The market is still expanding. Fringe operating systems still have room to garner some form of marketshare.
I think Apple knows this and is counting on increased Android fragmentation in their future plans.
1:04 p.m., Wednesday Nov. 27
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