Samsung has, over the years, released one smartwatch after the other powered by its own Tizen platform.
That, according to word on the grapevine, is about to change.
The Korean device maker is tipped to introduce a new smartwatch, a follow up to the Galaxy Watch 3 it unveiled last year, that is powered by Wear OS, Google’s wearables platform.
It is interesting to note, however, that this does not necessarily spell doom for Tizen. Rather, it is Samsung covering its bases and offering users more options, at least in the short term. In the long term, if it works out, we could expect a complete departure from Tizen to Google’s platform.
While it is still not clear what the motivation to do this might be, given the higher ratings Tizen-based wearables have over those powered by Wear OS, going by the software alone, many point to the increasingly close ties between Google and Samsung.
Samsung has, in the past, volunteered its expertise in the enterprise smartphone market to bolster Google’s Android Enterprise Recommended programme, eventually joining the programme itself. Recently, the company’s latest flagship smartphone series, the Galaxy S21, has shipped without the Samsung messages application, packing, instead, Google’s messages app.
