Google and Samsung recently announced a collaboration on their software for wearable devices, bringing the best of Tizen to a completely redesigned Wear OS (Now just called Wear). While this means the end of standalone Tizen software on Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Series, Samsung will still be keeping its Tizen platform running its TVs.
Samsung’s TV lineup is popular across the world and it has been running on the Tizen software for years now. However, due to this very reason, many believed Tizen on Samsung TVs would face the same hurdles that it did on the wearables. This led many people to believe that a switch in Samsung’s TV software was also not far away.
However, a new development suggests otherwise. Speaking to Protocol, Samsung directly confirmed that its TVs will continue running on the Tizen platform for now. “Tizen still is the default platform for our smart TVs going forward,” the company said.
The move could be due to many reasons, one of which is that the wearable market differs largely from the smart TV market. When it comes to televisions, the software running the devices is not as important of a factor compared to smartwatches, where the software and its integration with phones is one of the most important elements.
Not merging Tizen with Android TV also suggests that Samsung will continue to remain a competitor to Google’s Android TV in the smart television segment, at least for now, despite the collaboration on the wearables front.