Now this is one rumor that should be taken with vast swathes of salt, but according to USA Today and “three sources,” the Galaxy Gear 2 will run on Tizen, not Android, as part of Samsung’s plans to “develop more of its own software and services.” Samsung will reportedly unveil the second-generation Gear alongside a new HTML5 version of Tizen at Mobile World Congress next week. Android is already dominant in the smartphone and tablet market, and according to the publication, the Korean giant doesn’t want to extend any help towards making Android a big thing in the wearables market.
However, that doesn’t exactly make sense, as when it comes to smartwatches, it’s more about what the device can do instead of what OS it is running, especially since companies will run a stripped down version of Android on their smartwatches. But using Tizen does offer an advantage, in that the Galaxy Gear 2 could run as a standalone device instead of being dependent on Samsung’s proprietary Android software (TouchWiz), which means it could be compatible with non-Samsung devices as well, something which a lot of people hoped had been the case with the first Galaxy Gear.
Samsung’s MWC event is set to be held on February 24th, so it’s not long before we discover just how much truth there is behind this rumor. According to The Verge, Samsung could introduce multiple Galaxy Gear models, so it’s possible the Tizen version of the watch could be a separate device that’s built for the Tizen phones the company is bound to launch sometime in the future.
