| |
Tech: Samsung to sell Linux-based handsets after Google/Moto deal
Member Since: 2/16/2012
Posts: 8,740
|
Samsung to sell Linux-based handsets after Google/Moto deal
Quote:
Samsung Electronics Co. (005930), the world’s largest seller of mobile phones, said it will start selling smartphones this year featuring the Tizen operating system backed by Intel Corp.
“We plan to release new, competitive Tizen devices within this year and will keep expanding the lineup depending on market conditions,” Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung said in an e- mailed statement today. The company didn’t elaborate on model specifications, prices or timeframe for their debut.
The new handsets will come as Samsung looks to reduce its reliance on Google (GOOG) Inc.’s Android operating system after the Internet search company acquired handset maker Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. for $12.5 billion in May. Executives from Intel, Samsung, NTT DoCoMo Inc. (9437) and Vodafone Group Plc (VOD) formed the Tizen Association last year to support the open-source software.
“The Tizen was born as Samsung hoped to lighten its growing dependence on Google on concerns that its top position in the smartphone market may weaken following the Google- Motorola tie-up,” Byun Han Joon, an analyst at KB Investment & Securities in Seoul, said by phone today. “Intel always wanted to boost its presence in the mobile CPU market.”
Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported Dec. 31 that Samsung will release a Tizen-based smartphone through wireless carrier NTT Docomo later this year. The newspaper cited sources it didn’t identify.
Google, Apple
Mountain View, California-based Google, operator of the world’s most-popular search engine, plans to devote more attention to mobile devices as its rivalry with Apple Inc. (AAPL) accelerates. Samsung is the biggest seller of devices running Android in the $219 billion global smartphone market.
Samsung reported record profit in the three months ended Sept. 30 amid surging sales of its Galaxy smartphone. More than two-thirds of the earnings were generated by the telecommunications business, according to the company.
Samsung shipped 56.9 million smartphones in the third quarter, giving it a record 35 percent market share, compared with 17 percent for Apple, researcher Strategy Analytics said in October. In total handset sales, including basic types, Samsung remained the top seller, researcher IDC said separately.
The LiMo Foundation and Linux Foundation said in September 2011 they would jointly develop Tizen for use in devices including mobile phones and TVs.
Chase Perrin, an official with the San Ramon, California- based Tizen Association, said the group wouldn’t be able to immediately respond to an e-mail sent after regular business hours.
In 2009, Samsung released its Bada platform, which is mainly used in lower-end smartphones sold in Europe and emerging markets.
SOURCE
|
Google and Samsung getting in a bit of mess 
Quote:
Hard on the heels of Wednesday's unveiling of Ubuntu Linux for phones, Samsung has now reportedly confirmed that it plans to ship new Linux-based mobile devices of its own later this year.
Rather than Ubuntu Linux or Linux-based Android, however, Samsung's handsets will be based on Tizen Linux, a mobile OS that was launched by the Linux Foundation and the LiMo Foundation in late 2011.
Samsung plans "to unveil competitive Tizen devices within this year," a company spokesperson reportedly told CNET on Thursday, though no further specifics were provided.
Samsung hasn't yet responded to my request for more information, but I'll post an update if and when it does.
Meanwhile, a separate report by the Japanese Daily Yomiuri Online suggests that NTT Docomo is also involved, as noted today by The H.
An ongoing attraction
Generally considered a replacement for the long-struggling Linux-based MeeGo platform, Tizen has been the focus of Samsung's interest for some time already.
At last year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), in fact, Samsung executive Kang Tae-jin told Forbes that Samsung planned to merge its homegrown Bada mobile operating system into Tizen.
Samsung later backtracked on that statement, but meanwhile Tizen also won Intel's support. Not long afterwards, Samsung became a platinum member of the Linux Foundation.
MeeGo, meanwhile, has since gone on to become a key part of Finnish startup Jolla's plans in the form of Sailfish OS.
SOURCE
|
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 5/4/2012
Posts: 12,811
|
I wanted Ubuntu. 
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 5/4/2012
Posts: 12,811
|
But anyway, from how this looks Samsung is trying to take more of the mobile pie by going into yet ANOTHER OS. they are not gonna drop android just like that.
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 2/16/2012
Posts: 8,740
|
Quote:
Originally posted by Big Smoke
But anyway, from how this looks Samsung is trying to take more of the mobile pie by going into yet ANOTHER OS. they are not gonna drop android just like that.
|
They're upset because Google is making the XPhone which Google claims to be an iPhone killer but I think it's pretty obvious that Google bought Motorola to go against Samsung to get more design control of their own.
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 4/21/2011
Posts: 42,362
|
Quote:
Originally posted by RastaMentality
They're upset because Google is making the XPhone which Google claims to be an iPhone killer but I think it's pretty obvious that Google bought Motorola to go against Samsung to get more design control of their own.
|
I don't think Google wanted to go against Samsung. That wouldn't be a smart move considering the fact that Samsung is their biggest android selling company. Didn't Google mainly buy Motorola for all them patents ?
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 4/21/2011
Posts: 42,362
|
And for those who don't know it yet, Samsung OWNS Tizen.
I can totally understand that now the Samsung brand is famous enough WW, they want to be less depending of Google's OS and want to put more efforts into their own OS.
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 9/18/2010
Posts: 12,628
|
Quote:
Originally posted by Big Smoke
I wanted Ubuntu. |
+1 
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 2/16/2012
Posts: 8,740
|
Quote:
Originally posted by H-I-M
I don't think Google wanted to go against Samsung. That wouldn't be a smart move considering the fact that Samsung is their biggest android selling company. Didn't Google mainly buy Motorola for all them patents ?
|
Yes, but as we saw with Apple and Google. Friends can become enemies and switch off. Google needs Apple and Apple needs Google but Google still came out with Android.
This provides some insight:
Quote:
Last week, both Reuters and the Wall Street Journal broke the story – almost certainly deliberately leaked by Google itself – that Google was overseeing a project within its Motorola division to create an “X-Phone”.
How is this different than the Nexus phone which Google oversees with a pre-selected partner?
The fundamental difference is that with xPhone, Google has complete control over the development, distribution and marketing of this device. Consider that the most recent Nexus smartphone, built cooperatively by Google and LG, received rather middling reviews. Google, once the champion of “open”, clearly is no longer interested in working with a partner that can’t compete against the top smartphone makers in the world, Apple and Samsung. They want to build a smartphone that is at par with iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy. Perhaps they will do even better, leveraging the latest R&D from Motorola, particularly the company’s work with multi-core processors and mobile battery technology. This will certainly be a boon for users.
But make no mistake, first and foremost, the xPhone is an attack on Samsung, not Apple, not the iPhone.
To date, Android has been a massive cost sink for Google. They spent over $10 billion to acquire Motorola, which continues to bleed money. They have spent untold billions to market Android, develop products and services for Android, and to pay sales and other fees to giant carriers to distribute Android devices. From a business standpoint – and Google is first and foremost a business – Android has been a failure. Google continues to make far more money off iPhone and iPad than from Android or their high-end Nexus line. This cannot continue.
The only one making any real money off Android is Samsung. Samsung has become so important to Android, so dominant in fact, that I have even speculated that Samsung will buy the entire Android platform from Google. (http://www.unwiredview.com/2012/10/2...id-to-samsung/)
Since I wrote that late last year, Samsung has become even more dominant within Android. Indeed, if not for Samsung, Google Android sales might collapse. As has been well documented, nearly *all* profits from selling Android handsets flow to Samsung. Samsung sold more than 200 million Android devices in 2012 – four times more than the nearest competitor. Samsung has confidently stated they intend to sell more than 300 million Android devices in 2013. There is an old saying: if you owe the bank a million dollars, you have a problem. If you owe the bank a billion dollars, the bank has a problem. In this case, the bank is Google.
Samsung has simply become too powerful within the Android ecosystem. What if Samsung were to ‘fork’ Android? What if they were to cut a global deal with Microsoft, say, and make Bing and Bing Maps the defaults? This is not far-fetched. Notice that in every Samsung advertisement, the focus is on “Samsung” and “Galaxy” and Galaxy-optimized services. No Google service or Android brand is ever stated.
Google makes more money, much more, from their services on iPhone than from their services on every single Android device. True, while Apple has made its Safari browser and Apple Maps the defaults, Apple has in no way prevented Google from placing every one of its mobile services on the iOS ecosystem. YouTube, Maps, Gmail, search, et al. Can Google be sure of the same from Samsung? No.
Samsung happily takes the free Android OS. They happily take the latest Google applications. But they offer nothing in return. They do not promote the Android brand, nor any Google services. They make billions off Android but deliver paltry revenues back to Google. They are responsible for approximately half of all new Android device sales, sucking out nearly all the Android device profits and thus limiting the appeal of the OS for other handset makers.
Plainly put, Samsung is a bigger threat to Google Android than Apple. The xPhone is a logical attempt to limit Samsung’s growing dominance. It’s no wonder Google is working on this semi-secret “xPhone” project. Their entire ecosystem is under threat. Only, not by Apple or Microsoft, not by Amazon or Facebook, but by their own partner.
Bottom-line: yes, the xPhone is Google’s attempt to full-on copy the Apple ecosystem, hardware plus software plus app store, all fully controlled by one company. This has proven extremely profitable for Apple. I think the xPhone is also an attempt by Google to squeeze any value it can from its extremely costly Motorola acquisition. But, I also believe that the xPhone is a long-term hedge against the rising power that Samsung has within Google’s own Android ecosystem. In the smartphone wars, friends and enemies can shift frequently. Google understands this.
|
Interesting tbh. The smartphone wars are much more complex than we think. 
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 5/4/2012
Posts: 12,811
|
Quote:
Originally posted by RastaMentality
They're upset because Google is making the XPhone which Google claims to be an iPhone killer but I think it's pretty obvious that Google bought Motorola to go against Samsung to get more design control of their own.
|
Google copped Motorola for the patents.
And Samsung is the biggest Android handset seller right now. It would be literally 2 steps backward for Google to cut ties.
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 12/15/2009
Posts: 23,385
|
Quote:
Originally posted by H-I-M
And for those who don't know it yet, Samsung OWNS Tizen.
I can totally understand that now the Samsung brand is famous enough WW, they want to be less depending of Google's OS and want to put more efforts into their own OS.
|
They need Android's ecosystem and brand. I know for certain that Samsung won't abandon Google entirely and will make mid range Tizen os phones in Asian markets to test the waters.
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 4/21/2011
Posts: 42,362
|
Quote:
Originally posted by RastaMentality
Yes, but as we saw with Apple and Google. Friends can become enemies and switch off. Google needs Apple and Apple needs Google but Google still came out with Android.
This provides some insight:
Interesting tbh. The smartphone wars are much more complex than we think. |
So if I got it right, it's not that Google wants to go against Samsung, it's that they want to have a plan B in case that Samsung would leave them ?
I understand Google's decision, and it's not like they had the choice TBH. Remember the Galaxy S3 event where Samsung did not mention google ONCE ? They even came up with their own market and own Siri.
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 2/16/2012
Posts: 8,740
|
Quote:
Originally posted by Big Smoke
Google copped Motorola for the patents.
And Samsung is the biggest Android handset seller right now. It would be literally 2 steps backward for Google to cut ties.
|
Nah, they didn't. Thatd be money lost for no reason. They're not cutting ties. They're just going head to head with Samsung with this new xPhone project. If you read the post above, Google as of now isn't making much money from the current Android devices (they make considerably more from iOS). It's business and in business the goal is to make more money. This project is to ensure Google can actually make more money from their own OS because its not going all too well.
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 5/4/2012
Posts: 12,811
|
Quote:
Originally posted by RastaMentality
Yes, but as we saw with Apple and Google. Friends can become enemies and switch off. Google needs Apple and Apple needs Google but Google still came out with Android.
This provides some insight:
Interesting tbh. The smartphone wars are much more complex than we think. |
Android is open source though. They make little to no money off Android because the code is free to use and they dont make their own phones (technically.) But the worth of their stock off the success of Android has gone up.
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 2/16/2012
Posts: 8,740
|
Quote:
Originally posted by H-I-M
So if I got it right, it's not that Google wants to go against Samsung, it's that they want to have a plan B in case that Samsung would leave them ?
I understand Google's decision, and it's not like they had the choice TBH. Remember the Galaxy S3 event where Samsung did not mention google ONCE ? They even came up with their own market and own Siri.
|
It's not necessarily its a plan B. Google NEEDS this considering Samsung could possibly not be putting money in their pockets in the future. This xPhone project will ensure they're able to compete with Samsung because making average phones with LG as of now isn't cutting it.
Samsung doesnt even sound like they really like being tied to Google as of now (hence them not mentioning them and Google not being on the back of the S3 even though it was on the back of the S1). But according to a Samsung insider this Tizen project looks like **** now so they're probably hard at work to improve it.
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 4/21/2011
Posts: 42,362
|
Regarding the X phone, Google couldn't go head to head with Samsung with their Nexus line, so what makes them think it will work with a Google feat Motorola phone ?
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 2/16/2012
Posts: 8,740
|
Quote:
Originally posted by Big Smoke
Android is open source though. They make little to no money off Android because the code is free to use and they dont make their own phones (technically.) But the worth of their stock off the success of Android has gone up.
|
Open source isn't the reason. Google is an ad and search company. They've always been. Apple customers search the web, search maps, and use Google's products way more than Android ones do. From ads on Android and other things on Android, Google only makes about $1.70 per device per year. If they make their own phone with the help of Motorola, who they bought, they can make the full amount.
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 2/16/2012
Posts: 8,740
|
Quote:
Originally posted by H-I-M
Regarding the X phone, Google couldn't go head to head with Samsung with their Nexus line, so what makes them think it will work with a Google feat Motorola phone ?
|
Because its under their complete reins. The nexus line was under LG's and other company's. they think that this'll help them compete fully against Apple/Samsung (the only ones that matter). They're ahead of the production, hardware, software, and the whole ecosystem which is something that only Apple has really been able to do successfully currently. Google CAN pull this off but idk if they have the people in their executive list that are good with production costs and all of that.
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 12/7/2011
Posts: 18,969
|
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 5/4/2012
Posts: 12,811
|
Quote:
Originally posted by RastaMentality
Open source isn't the reason. Google is an ad and search company. They've always been. Apple customers search the web, search maps, and use Google's products way more than Android ones do. From ads on Android and other things on Android, Google only makes about $1.70 per device per year. If they make their own phone with the help of Motorola, who they bought, they can make the full amount.
|
If you got that number where I think you did...  The only way thats even slightly plausible is if there are more iPhones than there are Droids in the world (which there may be, but still)
Google spent (and lost) a lot of money developing Android, and only make back off stock price, patents and Google Play. All this XPhone is really is to compete with Samsung, and get some of that hardware money flowing their direction.
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 12/15/2009
Posts: 23,385
|
I have no idea what any of that means....
It gave me a nice boner though. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
