Samsung today clarified a report that it was merging its bada operating system with the Intel-backed Tizen initiative. A final decision has not been reached according to a company statement sent to AllThingsD:
“Samsung and other members of Tizen Association have not made a firm decision regarding the merge of bada and Tizen. We are carefully looking at it as an option to make the platforms serve better for customers. As Samsung’s essential part of multi-platform portfolio, bada will continue to play an important role in democratizing smartphone experience in all markets. Samsung will also support open source based development and continue to work together with other industry stakeholders.”
Samsung has had some success with bada (about a 2% global smartphone market share in 2011) so it may still be trying to decide whether going it alone would be more beneficial.
The first version of Tizen, itself a merger between Intel’s Moblin and Nokia’s Maemo platforms, is expected in Q1 2012 with the first devices to use it expected to follow in mid-2012.
Read more: AllThingsD (Source: The Verge)