The new iteration of Samsung’s Gear smartwatch will be powered by Tizen, instead of Google’s Android operating system, reports USA Today.
Samsung is likely to launch Galaxy Gear 2 powered by Tizen OS alongside its latest flagship Galaxy S5 at their upcoming UnPacked 5 event in the coming week. Samsung, being relatively quiet about Tizen of late, refused to respond to any inquiry about the switch to Tizen from Android stating it doesn’t want to comment on rumors and speculations.
Tizen, Samsung’s open-source platform, seen as rival for Android and iOS, is being heavily pushed since its launch last year. The company had plans to reveal the first Tizen-powered handset for Japanese phone network NTT Docomo by September 2013.
But, with the major carrier partners including NTT Docomo backing off, there was a delay in release by several months. Later, last month the company sent out invites for the launch of Tizen devices at an event on 23 February 2014.
According to the report, Samsung is shifting to the Tizen OS from Android to have a better control over the Galaxy Gear’s software. With Tizen OS, the Galaxy Gear 2 could run as a standalone device, making it compatible with all the Samsung devices. Limited compatibility was one of the biggest problems with the original Galaxy Gear as it was only compatible with Galaxy Note 3 at the time of launch.
The report also confirms that the Korean company is developing fitness-focused smartwatch dubbed the Galaxy Band, which will be launched along with the hugely anticipated Galaxy S5, its flagship smartphone, at the MWC 2014 next week, in Barcelona.
