The long wait for a major Tizen OS device is finally over, and it’s a…smartwatch? At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, Samsung skipped the unveiling of its first Tizen smartphone, and instead rolled out two Tizen-based wrist computers: the Gear 2 and Gear Neo. Due to ship in April, the devices are lighter and more stylish than Samsung’s Android-based Galaxy Gear.
The Gear 2 Neo will ship with 100 Tizen apps and an open SDK is available to make more. Image credit: Samsung.
The Gear 2 and Gear Neo will ship with 100 Tizen apps, mostly ported over from the first generation Galaxy Gear, and an open SDK is available to make more. Also at MWC, the Tizen Project announced winners of the Tizen App Challenge (see farther below).
The two watches can also act as standalone Bluetooth music players and cameras, but they are primarily billed as Bluetooth companion devices to other mobile devices. In fact, as with the Galaxy Gear, they’re restricted to syncing up with Samsung devices. While that still gives Samsung a huge market — the company just announced it has sold over 200 million Galaxy S phones alone since their 2010 launch — millions of Android and iOS users are left out of the picture.