Chances for a Tizen Smartphone Entry

Michael Schloh von Bennewitz — Mon, 04 Nov 2013 21:50:15 +0000

Tizen is a fresh new project, but it has roots in several pre-existing platforms including the distributions Moblin, MeeGo and LiMo. According to the Tizen Association, "The mobile marketplace has undergone extensive change over the past few years. New platforms have emerged, new revenue models have been enabled, and innovations continue to emerge rapidly from all corners of the industry. Tizen is an open-source solution that provides an innovative platform offering a high level of flexibility in service selection and deployment."

Figure 1. Family Tree of Tizen's Historical Roots (GNU Free Documentation License 1.3)

Key Players

Tizen's roots and rich history bring a number of groups together and give rise to a management problem. To leverage the competence of the groups involved, Tizen is managed by the following:

The Linux Foundation: according to the official documentation, the Tizen project "resides" within the Linux Foundation and is governed by a Technical Steering Group.
The Technical Steering Group: the Technical Steering Group is the primary decision-making body for Tizen, with a focus on platform development and delivery, along with the formation of working groups to support device verticals.
The Tizen Association: the Tizen Association has been formed to guide the industry role of Tizen, including gathering of requirements, identification and facilitation of service models, and overall industry marketing and education. In the Tizen Association's own words, "The Tizen Association's charter is to actively develop the ecosystem around Tizen, which includes the market presence, gathering of requirements, identification and facilitation of service models, and overall industry marketing and education."
Corporate Supporters: the two corporations providing the longest-running support for Tizen are Intel and Samsung. Other manufacturers include NEC, Panasonic, Fujitsu and Huawei. Several telecommunications operator corporations supporting Tizen market adoption include Orange, NTT Docomo, SK Telecom, KT, the Vodafone group, Telefonica and Sprint. Finally, Jaguar Land Rover heads up the automotive market in adopting Tizen for its IVI infrastructure.

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