Japanese mobile giant NTT DoCoMo has revealed that it will not be launching its Tizen powered smartphone this March citing lack of market space for a third mobile operating system.
According to a report on the Wall Street Journal citing data from IDC Japan, NTT DoCoMo revealed that the market in Japan wasn’t growing fast enough that it will be able to support a third mobile operating system. NTT DoCoMo’s concerns may be spot on considering latest figures [PDF] from Kantar Worldpanel which reveal that Android and iOS rule Japan’s market with over 99.1 percent share between them.
“The market is not big enough to support three operating systems at this time,” DoCoMo spokesman So Hiroki said Friday. Hiroki also revealed that the company will not cease its Tizen plans and will continue its work.
This is definitely a blow for Tizen considering NTT DoCoMo was going to be the first carrier to launch a smartphone running the operating system. DoCoMo’s decision would come as a blow for Samsung as well considering it was one of the strongest backers of the platform.
DoCoMo’s denial isn’t the first hurdle for Samsung as the company itself has failed to deliver on its promises. January 2013 saw the company announcing plans that it will launch ‘more than one’ Tizen smartphones by the year end. We are yet to see a Tizen smartphone and now DoCoMo’s denial may delay the launch by atleast six months.
Samsung had also revealed that it will be publishing dates for Tizen kits before MWC 2014, but the declaration seems to reverberate those made last year.
