Android registered a slight year-on-year increase in marketshare, while Apple gained traction, driven by strong demand for new iPhone models. Microsoft, BlackBerry and Firefox drifted down, while Tizen posted tangible growth and overtook BlackBerry being the fourth largest OS platform for the first time ever.
Good news to see Tizen gain at least some traction – although admittedly taking over BlackBerry OS is like winning the 100 m sprint while your competitors are all asleep. In case you’re not familiar with Tizen, this helpful video will explain… Wait what did I just watch?
In any event, I’m genuinely interested in getting a Tizen device once they hit Europe at a justifiable price point. Great addition to the collection.
Bottom of the range hardware running an obscure OS with an absurdly high purchase price.
Blackberry or Tizen?
Tizen.
The Z3 would be poor value at $100. It is complete rubbish at the current price of $200.
When you can get nice quad core Android and Windows phones for $80-$120 USD? Yeah their price is completely nuts.
BTW if anybody is looking for a cheap Android or WinPhone that is really tough and has great battery life? Check out the BLU phones. I picked mine up a year ago and I’m REALLY rough on phones, I bash them against walls when they’re in my pocket, always seem to be dropping them, and my BLU has took it all and never missed a beat and when you are talking about a 1.2Ghz quad with a GB of RAM, unlocked, MicroSD, and decent camera for $100 USD? You really can’t beat that. And from the folks I’ve talked to online that have the WinPhone version its equally as tough, just great solid phones at dirt cheap prices.
The Huawei Honor Bee with virtually identical hardware (except for a slightly smaller screen) sells for $80.
http://www.klc.org.pk/huawei-introduces-honor-bee-potent-budget-sma…
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Edited 2015-11-07 07:15 UTC
Tizen is actually a full modern Linux variant with systemd/pam/polkit, glib, wayland, gtk/Qt. It may not seem much right now but this has a promising foundation for an interesting future.
Like Meego, WebOS and Sailfish?
Edited 2015-11-08 21:32 UTC
I don’t know anything about WebOS but “Web” part looks like something html5? That’s not going to work then. The working trend right now is self executables that use UIs written in JS (Qml / gnome-shell).
But this is starting off where at technologies that Linux is trying to attain (wayland, systemd, etc…) hence the good timing. I can picture Tizen will work on desktops eventually.
A successful phone OS needs hundreds of millions of users. You don’t attract users by charging premium prices for budget hardware.
I currently have the Gear S, and was considering the purchase of the Gear S2. Then of course there are the Tizen based TVs… though I think I want a WebOS based one, because I don’t have a device with WebOS yet
I have a LG TV with WebOS. I’ve been looking into the SDK and it looks like coding is done in JavaScript. Sadly, all the HP WebOS SDK documentation is now offline
I have one, but its a 2014, which is on WebOs TV v1 or what not.
Its really nice UI wise. The Mobile share part is crap, and the android app is EOL Jan 1, 2016. But other than that its fast (once the “Smart Services” part is booted), stable, easy to use.
Id recommend it over samsung, if that’s any kind of endorsement.
Apparently there was some update that LG pushed out that wasn’t very friendly privacy wise, though it’s not surprising that any ‘smart tv’ is going to do it’s best to advertise crap to you…
After doing further research, I think I’m going to get the Tizen TV, specifically the UN32J5205. Everything about it looks like it’d fit my needs perfectly. Though I still need to see if it actually supports bluetooth (for headphones) because on Amazon’s questions one person says yes, the other says no, and I can’t find any info on it…
If it’s any like the LG webOS TV I own, it supports Bluetooth but they have a whitelist of LG-known Bluetooth devices.
Making it unusable with almost all BT headsets currently in the market.
Fsck LG. And people wonder why I’m a huge GPLv3 fan.
Yeah, Tough nut there GPL V3. I really, really like it. I really really wish other companies did too. But, it seems like they’re more compelled to completely re-write some things in non GPL than they are use software licensed by GPL v3.
tldr; I don’t know why people are stupid.
I am skeptical. Does this number represent overall Tizen sales (including smartwatches) vs Blackberry OS sales. If so, then it makes sense. But surely not Tizen smartphone sales vs. Blackberry smartphone sales…
Possibly – based on the last quarter.
Edited 2015-11-06 08:59 UTC
I’m glad we have that video, it cleared up my questions and concerns. For a while I thought the OS was confusing, not anymore.
Edited 2015-11-06 13:18 UTC
Oh well, good luck getting developers to move away from .NET, WinRT, Android and Cocoa frameworks.
It’s not even good C code. Using EFL is like diving into a lava pit.
Bashing EFL seems to be quite popular these days. I ponder if there are any Gtk+ C users left by now.
The problem is C. There’s no sane way to do any UI toolkit in C.
Half of the reason is that most GUI toolkits are basically pretty much OO-only. I know a few toolkits that are not OO and they all are “state machine” approaches (like OpenGL) that are very hard to work with.
The other half is that C sucks.
Edited 2015-11-08 19:01 UTC
The fact that it is led by Samsung and is built on its Samsung Linux Platform means that it is not as trustworthy as its rivals.
Tizen is pretty much just an insurance policy against Android so they have a plan B if they need one.
After looking at the BB Priv (android) reviews Blackberry might not even be around in a few more years.
Arstechnica says “Poor camera, battery life, and build: Welcome to Blackberry’s first Android phone.”
Ouch, for a phone that starts at $700 ($50 more than an iPhone or an S6) that’s pretty harsh. You can buy phones for $400 that are pretty good but without at least a really good camera it shouldn’t even get to call itself a flagship in the same class of iPhone and S6.
They are still sitting on a pile of cash ($3B) for having an empire for so long but they seem to be doing a good job of bleeding through both it and their market share. They definitely have enough money and resources to make an Android phone that’s actually good so if they fall short on doing it they have only themselves to blame.
The Register’s headline:
BlackBerry Priv: Enterprise Android in a snazzy but functional package
A phone for grown-ups that doesn’t suck.
Edit:
Or AndroidCentral’s review headline:
It turns out BlackBerry can make one hell of an Android phone.
Edited 2015-11-07 14:50 UTC
BBY targets users (banking, finance and government) aren’t really interested in taking selfies. They don’t usually buy their own work phones either.
BTW, what’s the purpose of Tizen? I know it’s supposed to be Intel’s and Samsung’s just-in-case insurance against Google’s dominance in mobile, but with content (especially purchased content) being tied to apps nowadays, and with said apps being available only in specific OSes, Tizen isn’t good even as a just in case insurance. How are people supposed to use their iTunes or Google Play purchased content into Tizen?
In a perfect world, all content-delivery apps would be HTML5/CSS/JS based, and be available for download as zip files, but this isn’t the world we live in.
Even Intel and Samsung management should have gotten the memo by now.
So, I am missing something? Are Intel and Sammy still pouring resources in Tizen because they do not want to admit defeat?
Edited 2015-11-08 15:06 UTC
There is more than that. Tizen is also trademarked by the Linux foundation. Not all development is done at Intel and Samsung. It uses a full Linux stack up to wayland/gtk/Qt. This is likely the future of Linux on devices.
Samsung contributes to things like Cairo, etc…
Linux desktop didn’t cut it because of ancient parts.
Android couldn’t replace it. Tizen is working with the community as a Linux variant. They are even pushing for the controversial kdbus. Tizen is not very different than what Linux distributions will be like 5 years from now.
Really this is what the Linux world has been waiting for.
Edited 2015-11-08 17:07 UTC
Okay, nice info, but irrelevant to what I asked: With purchased content being tied to apps in mobile devices, Tizen has no hope of registering a blip on the market.
Why do Samsung and Intel continue to contribute code, time and money in it?
Is there some hidden hope, some grand plan, or they just don’t want to admit defeat?