The project was originally conceived as an HTML5-based platform for mobile devices to succeed MeeGo. It was backed by other companies under the Tizen Association. Samsung merged its previous Linux-based OS effort, Bada, into Tizen and has since used it primarily on platforms such as wearable devices and smart TVs.
In May 2021, Google announced that Samsung would partner with the company on integrating Tizen features into Google's Android-derived Wear OS and committed to using it on future wearables, leaving Tizen to be mainly developed for Samsung Smart TVs.[3]
History
This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(December 2018)
The project was initiated as mobile Linux and was launched by Intel in July 2007. In April 2009 the operating system updated to version 2.0 which was based on Fedora. However, in the same month, Intel turned Moblin over to the Linux Foundation for future development. Eventually, the operating system was merged with NokiaMaemo, a Debian based Linux distro, into MeeGo which was mainly developed by Nokia, Intel and Linux Foundation.
In January 2013, Samsung announced its intent to release multiple Tizen-based phones that year. In February 2013, Samsung merged its Bada operating system into Tizen.[7][8]
In October 2013, the first Tizen tablet was shipped by Systena. The tablet was part of a development kit exclusive to Japan.[9][10][11]
In 2014, Samsung released the Gear 2smartwatch that used a Tizen-based operating system as opposed to Android.[12]
On May 14, 2014, it was announced that Tizen would ship with Qt.[13] This project was abandoned in January 2017.[14]
On February 21, 2016, Samsung announced the Samsung Connect Auto, a connected car solution offering diagnostic, Wi-Fi, and other car-connected services. The device plugs directly into the OBD-II port underneath the steering wheel.[15]
On November 16, 2016, Samsung said they would be collaborating with Microsoft to bring .NET Core support to Tizen.[16]
According to Strategy Analytics research, approximately 21% of the smart TVs sold in 2018 run on the Tizen platform making it the most popular smart TV platform.[17]
On May 19, 2021, during Google I/O, Google announced that Samsung had agreed to work on integrating features of Tizen with the next version of Wear OS, and that it had committed to using Wear OS for its future wearable products.[18][19][20] Samsung will continue to use Tizen for its smart TVs.[21]
On December 31, 2021, the Tizen app store permanently closed.[22] The last smartphone based on the Tizen operating system is the Samsung Z4 which was released in 2017. The company switched to Google's Wear OS 3 platform on its Galaxy Watch 4 smartwatches.[23][24]
On April 3, 2017, Vice reported on its "Motherboard" website that Amihai Neiderman, an Israeli security expert, has found more than 40 zero-day vulnerabilities in Tizen's code, allowing hackers to remotely access a wide variety of current Samsung products running Tizen, such as Smart TVs and mobile phones.[63] After the article was published, Samsung, whom Neiderman tried to contact months before, reached out to him to resolve the issues.[63]
TizenRT
In December 2016, Samsung created TizenRT,[64] a fork of NuttX, a real-time operating system (RTOS), for smart home appliances and IoT devices.