Samsung unveils Tizen 4.0 focussed towards IoT ecosystem

At its Tizen Developer Conference (TDC) 2017 in San Francisco, Samsung unveiled Tizen 4.0 OS that has a wider range of applications to devices than its predecessors.

The Tizen 4.0 OS is primarily aimed at extending the reach of the platform beyond traditional hardware devices, like smartphones or television sets to Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

"Since launching, Tizen has become the OS for nearly all of Samsung’s products, and with its record of sales growth, proven itself as the most successful Linux-based embedded OS in the world. Among open collaborations, and as we enter the IoT era, we expect Tizen will open new opportunities for the future of IoT," said Hyogun Lee, Chair of the Tizen Technical Steering Group.

The South Korean company said that Tizen 4.0 now comes not only in the Linux-based version for sophisticated devices, but has been extended to Tizen Real Time for application in low-specification devices such as bulbs, thermostats, and scales.

Samsung will also cooperate with Microsoft to offer developers development tools and languages to make Tizen apps. Microsoft's .NET and Xamarin UI framework are introduced to Tizen for C# language-based apps that can be made in the popular Visual Studio app by developers.

Talking about the Indian market at TDC 2017, Samsung claimed that Tizen-powered smartphones have been doing well in the country. The company also revealed plans to launch Tizen smartphones to more countries. Samsung recently unveiled the latest Z Series smartphone, Z4 powered by Tizen 3.o.

The South Korean electronic giant also introduced a new module in its ARTIK IoT module series, ARTIK053, which uses Tizen 4.0 and is optimised for use in low-data devices. Samsung first launched the ARTIK modules in 2016 and has since diversified the module line-up to encompass the super high-end to the low-end.