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Tizen: We have ignition! Smartmobes will come to fruition in spring - reports

This time they really will ... honest

Smartphones based on the long-awaited Tizen operating system will finally be unveiled in the next couple of months, according to new reports.

Unnamed sources at some of the companies involved in the project told Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun that there’d be an “announcement” on a release date for a Samsung phone based on the OS before Mobile World Congress next month, with handsets on the market by spring.

They also told the paper that more details would be released on the launch of Tizen app stores at the Barcelona-based event.

NTT Docomo spokesman Jun Otori confirmed separately to AFP that Tizen smartphones would be available from the end of March.

Launched by the Linux Foundation in 2011, the project has been slow to gain momentum despite the backing of Samsung, Huawei, Fujitsu and Intel on the hardware side and operators including NTT, Vodafone and Orange.

Samsung claimed around a year ago that it would have a device out by the end of 2013, for example, but that never materialised.

Nevertheless, Tizen remains one of the key frontrunners in the race to challenge the global hegemony of Android and iOS, which between them have over 90 per cent of the smartphone market.

Others include Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux for smartphones, Firefox OS and the MeeGo-derived Sailfish, all of which are in various states of development.

In related news, the Tizen Technical Steering Group last week announced an updated set of compliance specs for Tizen devices, which are available here. ®

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