Tizen's debut handset delayed due to processor rivalry?

While Samsung is expected to hold a Tizen-tinged event on February 23rd to demo a Tizen flavored phone, the event will not discuss anything about a subsequent launch. According to a published report out of Indonesia, NTT Docomo has delayed the expected March launch of its Tizen powered handset. Delays are nothing new to the Tizen platform. A whole series of expected launches has been put off over the last year, and at one time the OS was considered DOA.

What is new is the reason that is rumored to be behind the delay of a Tizen launch. Apparently, the first Tizen device, the one to be launched by Japan's Docomo, was supposed to have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 CPU under the hood. But Qualcomm is not a member of the Tizen Association and is in fact, a rival to Samsung and Intel in the chip world.

The chip rivalry has made things difficult for Samsung and the other companies that back Tizen, and has led to the delay. Only Qualcomm can deliver a SoC with a LTE modem that supports the kind of LTE connectivity that most carriers are using. And the carriers who are backing Tizen certainly want the phone to offer LTE connectivity. At this point, you can understand why there is an impasse.

There is a solution, but not a timely one. Sources say that Intel's new 22nm process Merrifield chip will power the first Tizen phone, and this chip does offer an LTE modem that will work with the carriers involved. We told you the other day that Intel might leave the smartphone business in 2015, but if Tizen does take off this might not happen. The new SoC is also expected to be introduced at MWC, and will ship in March. That could mean that Tizen is still a few months away from getting launched.

Thanks, Anonymous Tipster!

source: TizenIndonesia via GforGames