Samsung confirms it has no plans to abandon Tizen OS for its smart TVs

Samsung and Google have confirmed earlier this week that the Tizen platform for Galaxy smartwatches will be left behind in favor of an upgraded version of Wear OS. The idea is for Wear OS to benefit from Samsung's expertise in smartwatch operating systems, and for Samsung's smartwatches to take advantage of improved third-party support.

Now, while it was quite obvious from the official announcement that the Tizen platform is being left behind only as far as Samsung smartwatches are concerned, there have been some questions as to whether or not the entire Tizen ecosystem is going away. The answer to that is a definite no.

Samsung smart TVs will not abandon Tizen

Simply put, the Samsung-Google partnership surrounding Tizen concerns only smartwatches, and has nothing to do with Tizen OS for Samsung smart TVs. And if more confirmation was needed, a Samsung spokesperson told Protocol that: Tizen still is the default platform for our smart TVs going forward.

It makes sense for Samsung to keep Tizen OS for its smart TVs. Third-party app support on Samsung's smart TVs is great, and Tizen OS is officially the world's most popular TV platform, with 12.7% of all TVs worldwide running Tizen in 2020.

Google recently revealed that it has more than 80 million active Android TV devices in the world, but that pales in comparison with Samsung who had roughly 155 million Tizen-based smart TVs in use worldwide last year.

Samsung has been the world's no.1 TV brand for the past 15 years, and Tizen OS is partly responsible for the company's success, so it won't be going away anytime soon.

Mihai Matei - Senior Editor

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First Samsung device: SGH-A800

Mihai is a blogger and column writer at SamMobile. His first Samsung phone was an A800 which took a lot of beating, and a part of him still misses the novelty of the clamshell design. In his free time, he enjoys watching shows, documentaries, and stand-up comedy; listening to music, taking walks, and occasionally playing old(er) video games.

Via TV Smart TV Tizen