Samsung to Release Tizen Linux-Based Smartphone in Early 2013

It seems Samsung is getting ready to buck both Apple and Android in the smartphone arena.

The tech company will release a Tizen based smartphone sometime in the first quarter of 2013 on Japanese cellphone carrier NTT Docomo, according to Yomiuri Shinbun. Tizen is an open-source Linux-based operating system.

Docomo is currently the only Japanese carrier that doesn't offer the iPhone, so the company has been looking for ways to increase revenue and win back subscribers who have left for carriers with the iPhone, like Softbank.

Even without the iPhone, though, Docomo is the largest cellular company in Japan, with nearly half of all subscribers in it ranks, and the support of the carrier adds plenty of credibility to Tizen's development.

The move to Tizen should play well with smartphone users who are tired of the stringent control Apple places on its products.

Even Google's Android, which is supposed to be open-source, is often cited by developers as being difficult to use, due to some of Google's restrictions on heavy changes to the platform.

And developers who change the original code too much can find themselves shut out of Google's Play Store or banned from using the Android logo. Amazon's Kindle Fire and the Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader are examples, so obviously it's possible for a large enough company to break Google's hold.

But Tizen offers the promise of true open-source and collaborative development. Tizen is being jointly developed by Samsung and Intel as a platform for HTML5 applications for smartphones and mobile devices, and the effort is supported by the Linux Foundation.

As for Docomo's Tixen smartphone? No specifics have been released yet, so there's no way to know how it will compare to the juggernauts on the market today -- the iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy SIII.

Of course, the Galaxy S4 is already in the works, so Samsung might divert most of its resources in that direction. Hopefully that won't leave the Tizen phone to languish in development hell or end up falling short of both its promises and potential.