There may not be any consumer hardware running Tizen available quite yet, but the new platform does have many supporters that descended upon San Francisco at the tail end of last week for the second annual Tizen Developer Conference. And while much of what was discussed at the event was likely developer-focused, there were a couple of juicy tidbits for the rest of us to sink our teeth into.
First up, we've got images of the Samsung GT-I8800 "Redwood" device. Posted by Tizen Greek Commnunity, the photos show a Samsung-made device that's running Tizen 2.1, complete with some apps like S Voice and S Beam that ought to sound familiar to Galaxy device owners. There's not much known about the GT-I8800 Redwood hardware, but after cranking up the brightness in the shots, we can see an earpiece and physical home button that are reminiscent of the Galaxy S III.
In addition to snagging some photos of the GT-I8800 Redwood, Tizen Greek Community has shared a video demonstration of the Tizen Store that clocks in at seven-and-a-half minutes. The Tizen Store contains many of the same sections that users have come to expect from a mobile application storefront, including "Tizen picks," "Top" and "New and trending" sections. Also included in the Tizen Store is a "Discounts" section that will make it easy to find apps that are on sale, as well as a "Smart" tab that can recommend new apps for users to try.
We got a peek at Tizen 2.0 running on a Samsung-made reference device earlier this year, and after seeing the Tizen Store and learning that the platform is now up to version 2.1, it sounds like work on Tizen is progressing well. Details on Tizen's consumer launch are still light right now, but a Samsung executive previously said that his company is hoping to launch a high-end Tizen smartphone in August or September of this year.
It'll be interesting to see how much of a push Samsung puts behind Tizen, especially considering how strongly it's been backing the platform. One thing we do know, though, is that Tizen has a fight ahead of it, especially with iOS and Android controlling most of the mobile space and competition like BlackBerry 10 and Windows Phone vying for third place. The lengthy demo of the Tizen Store is available below to serve as something to chew on until more details on Tizen and its public launch surface.
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