Samsung announced at a Tizen Association event at MWC that it would launch devices running the Tizen mobile OS in 2013. The vendor has been working with operators and content partners in launch marets and will offer a global and local content in each market. Orange and NTT DoCoMo confirmed plans to sell Tizen devices in the second half of the year. The Tizen 2.0 Magnolia SDK and source code were released to developers, operators and OEMs earlier in February. The Tizen Association also announced it would launch Tizen Store later this year with thousands of apps. The outreach to developers to build HTML5 apps has started. The Tizen Developer conference will be held in San Francisco in May.
Orange and NTT DoCoMo said at the event that the first Tizen phones would be priced at the high end, which could be over USD 300, CNET reports. Orange said it was committed to selling Samsung and Huawei phones running Tizen this year. The operator added that Tizen phones would be introduced to emerging markets in 2014, where phones typically cost under USD 100. It is unclear when the OS will be introduced in the US, but Tizen Association member Sprint Nextel has expressed an openness to the phones. CNET adds that Huawei is joining the association's steering committee.
