Samsung to Sell Tizen-Based Handsets After Motorola Deal

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.

Report: Apple, Intel Working on Smartwatch for 2013

The year 2012 was another one in which Apple defied market skeptics and delivered an unlikely hit, the iPad mini , in the face of stiff competition.
But it wouldn't be a normal Apple year without at least one last rumor to send us scratching our heads into the new year, anxiously wondering what the company has up its sleeve next. The latest rumor isn't necessarily earthshaking, but it is nevertheless surprising: Sources based in China claim that Apple is working on releasing a smartwatch.
According to a report on China's TGbus.com, the Bluetooth-enabled smartwatch will feature a 1.5-inch touchscreen display and work directly with the iPhone, allowing users to make phone calls and perform other operations from their wrists. First spotted by tech site TheNextWeb, the watch is supposedly a joint project between Apple and Intel.

This new talk of a smart watch might seem outlandish on its face, that is, until you begin to examine some of Apple's recent moves.
Earlier this year, Apple decided to update the iPod nano with a totally new design, one that instantly rendered obsolete iPod nano accessories that essentially turn the device into a kind of smartwatch. Kickstarter projects like the TikTok and LunaTik iPod nano watch straps had raised just shy of $1 million, proving that a healthy market exists for iPod nano owners who want to turn the music device into a kind of smartwatch.

So months later, when Apple inexplicably changed the design of the iPod nano to a form factor that many agree is something of a step backward, market speculation immediately focused on the notion that Apple might be attempting to displace would-be smartwatch competitors, and thus clear the table for its own, forthcoming smartwatch.
And then there's the much-anticipated Pebble smartwatch. The upstart smartwatch company is famously listed as the most successful Kickstarter project ever, raising over $10 million during its brief fund-raising period.
One other piece of related Apple news to consider is the company's recent deal with the Swiss Federal Railway. After the launch of iOS 6, the Swiss organization claimed that Apple had included its watch face design in the updated iPad operating system, thus violating the organization's trademark. The two parties soon came to an agreement that allowed Apple to license the iconic watch face design. Although terms of the agreement were not confirmed by either company, one Swiss news source claimed that Apple paid about $21 million for the license.
The notion that Apple would pay such a high price for the use of a simple watch face design inside iOS 6 that could have easily been changed raised quite a few eyebrows. But that move also serves as yet another hint that Apple may have bigger plans for that watch face design beyond using it as a mere component of iOS 6.
Apple itself has offered no direct indication that it's developing a smartwatch, but it would be a good idea to watch this space for more as it develops.