At its annual developer conference 2021, Samsung took the wraps off many new software and services. The Korean giant has announced various improvements for its Bixby voice assistant, Samsung Health, Samsung Knox security system, and the SmartThings ecosystem. Amongst these, an important announcement that Samsung made was opening up the Tizen OS platform to other smart TV makers.
Samsung will now allow third-party smart TVs to run Tizen OS and get various benefits at a minimal cost. Smart TV makers can integrate Samsung’s OS into their smart TV models using Tizen TV Platform Licensing. Furthermore, they will get the opportunity to promote their TVs with Tizen OS onboard at various global events.
Samsung says that “manufacturers who want to introduce a premium TV platform like Tizen can do so quickly with minimal cost, as well as utilize the Tizen brand to promote their products at major external events.”
Tizen OS is already a pretty comprehensive platform for smart TVs, providing complete access to popular global music and video streaming platforms such as Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+ Hotstar, Apple TV+, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube TV, and many others. So, third-party manufacturers will also be able to provide access to these platforms with their smart TVs out of the box.
Now, Samsung is not the only company that is offering its in-house TV OS to other manufacturers. Google offers Android TV to third-party manufacturers to provide it with their smart TVs. Earlier this year, LG also jumped on the bandwagon and started a licensing service for its webOS platform. You can check out a detailed comparison between Google’s Android TV, Samsung’s Tizen OS, and LG’s webOS right here.
So, it is pretty refreshing to see that Samsung joining the likes of Google and LG to offer its feature-packed Tizen platform to other smart TV manufacturers. However, it is currently unclear how many brands are willing to take up Samsung’s offer and ship their smart TVs with Tizen OS on board.
