Tizen: a progressive mobile web platform for the future

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SUMMARY

In a nutshell

The Tizen Project builds on previous industry experience as the basis for a credible alternative ecosystem for smart devices and application developers. It has a distinctly different business model than today’s established mobile platforms in its potential to deliver greater diversity of products and services for consumers. This is being achieved by combining the technical

underpinnings of Linux and open source software with an open governance structure that ensures the freedom for stakeholders to innovate around the user experience and applications stack to achieve differentiation and commercial advantage. With strong backing from Samsung and Intel and the support of some of the world’s largest mobile operators and other device manufacturers, Tizen represents a clear opportunity to bring balance back to the mobile industry.

Key messages

 Tizen offers a highly credible alternative ecosystem for operators, smart device

manufacturers and application developers that is distinctly different in business model to today’s established mobile platforms.

 Openness, optimization and opportunity are Tizen’s guiding principles. OEMs and mobile operators, in particular stand to benefit from the platform, which is intended to create new opportunities for differentiation both at a user experience and service level, as well as greater choice and influence in the broader applications and content ecosystem.

 Tizen’s open governance – which is designed to prevent any single entity from controlling the platform – will help it avoid the pitfalls of previous broad-based industry initiatives,

Tizen: a progressive mobile

web platform for the future

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which ultimately suffered from perceived vendor control. This balanced approach should also encourage more vendors to participate.

 Tizen’s focus on HTML5 as its primary application platform is well aligned with the emerging developer enthusiasm for web-based development on a multitude of connected smart devices, which will help break existing “walled garden” approaches. Samsung and Intel regard Tizen as a highly strategic investment and are driving enablement of the developer ecosystem.

 However, the deep pockets of Samsung and Intel are not sufficient without the support of the Tizen Association’s operator and OEM members and their diverse global footprints if Tizen is to inspire broad support and to act as an industry catalyst to a self-reinforcing ecosystem.

 Tizen’s best near term smartphone opportunity looks set to be in markets that are more conducive to alternative software platforms. Such markets may exhibit favorable dynamics including lower sensitivity to availability of applications and content, or the failure of the existing platforms to address the full gamut of price points. Although Tizen is a fully featured OS capable of targeting high end smartphones, it can also be scaled down for lower cost smartphones. This low-cost segment is essential for high-growth / low-ARPU markets and the operator value proposition of Tizen as they seek to reduce or eliminate device subsidies.

 Also promising is the in-vehicle segment where Tizen was recently adopted as the reference implementation for a new Automotive Grade Linux project.

 According to Tizen supporters’ internal company goals, the platform needs to reach a sizeable (e.g. mid-teens) self-sustainable market share in smartphones, if it is to be considered a success in terms of the Tizen Association’s stated aim of providing a viable alternative to established mobile platforms.

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INTRODUCING TIZEN

The need for alternative device platforms

The main watchword for Tizen is choice. Tizen is designed to fill an important gap in today’s smartphone landscape: namely the perceived need for an open platform free from control by a single entity. The idea is to create new potential for innovation and commercialization, both in devices and services, in a market that has become increasingly commoditized.

Tizen’s three guiding principles are as follows:

 Openness. Tizen represents a genuinely open platform built largely with open source components in which all stakeholders are treated equally.

 Optimization. Tizen offers considerable flexibility in terms of user interface, services and optional components. The ability to configure and optimize the platform is particularly important to device segments where specialized components may be needed, for example for in-vehicle systems or smart TVs.

 Opportunities. Tizen makes it possible for stakeholders to create and roll out new services as they desire, at their own speed and in their own branded storefront if they choose to.

What is Tizen?

Tizen is a software platform designed for deployment across a wide range of connected computing devices. The open source project is housed within the Linux Foundation and governed by a Technical Steering Group (TSG) currently consisting of Samsung, Intel and the recently-joined Huawei. The Tizen Association itself is an operator-driven advocacy group charged with conveying service and device requirements to the TSG, advocating and growing the Tizen ecosystem and managing commercialization aspects such as the Tizen compliance program based on the Tizen Compliance Specification.

While the initial target market for Tizen is smartphones, it has also been designed for use in tablets, in-vehicle systems, smart TVs and other relatively constrained computing environments where high performance, good user experience and broad developer support are essential. Tizen’s broad applicability is built on its use of a common core architecture as well as extensive use of mature, and widely used, open source software components. This begins at Tizen’s Linux kernel and also covers well-known components such as the WebKit web browser rendering engine and the SQLite database engine. Tizen also runs on both ARM and x86 chip architectures. Tizen includes a reference user interface (UI) and platform services that OEMs can choose to use should they wish, although they are also free to develop their own. This supports any UI-layer innovations created by device manufacturers and other stakeholders (such as mobile telecoms

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operators), helping them to maintain product differentiation while relying on an open robust technology core. While this approach could potentially create fragmentation at the UI layer for application developers, the Tizen Project mitigates this problem by way of the comprehensive Tizen Compliance Tests used to validate platform conformance. Application developers are catered to via both a wide range of support for the emerging HTML5 web standard using the JQuery and JQuery Mobile JavaScript libraries, as well as a native C/C++ software development kit (SDK).

Native development remains a necessary developer paradigm for those developers looking to extract maximum performance from the underlying hardware, especially for games. However, more emphasis is being placed on Tizen’s close alignment with HTML5. With HTML5 forming part of Tizen’s application framework, applications developed using the technology can be deployed both inside and outside the confines of Tizen’s web browser. This should provide a very attractive target for the millions of existing web application developers globally while also allowing for extensive interoperability and code reuse across multiple other platforms and devices. Tizen’s implementation of HTML5 is designed to be best in class and wins leading scores with industry conformance benchmark tools such as The HTML5 Test (html5test.com) and Ringmark (rng.io).

Figure 1: Tizen 2.0 Architecture

Source: Tizen Association

Core

Native Applications

Linux Kernel & Device Drivers

App Framework Telephony Multimedia Base Location Security System Graphics & UI Native Framework Connectivity Messaging Web PIM Base/Io/Text/Locales Graphics/UI Net/Telephony/Messaging UIX Locations

Social/Content Media Web/XML

App/Security/System Services Web Applications Web Framework W3C/HTML5 Device APIs Web Runtime Video Touch CSS3 WebGL Worker BT Call NFC Msg

…

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Why is Tizen different?

Tizen enables OEMs and operators to customize its software and services to their own requirements and to participate in defining its future roadmap.

As described, technically the platform has much in common with other platforms. This is especially true of Android, which is similarly Linux-based and also offers many of the same open source components, including the aforementioned WebKit and SQLite.

This is to be expected. These components are now proven in smart device usage, are

meticulously integrated in commercial products – both with each other and with different hardware configurations – and provide a straightforward means to build a competitive platform without having to reinvent the wheel.

The Tizen Project itself is open source and any company can participate. This allows considerable freedom to pick and choose non-core components and third party partners to work with and allows, for instance, manufacturers to incorporate services such as the GSMA’s Rich Communication Services (RCS) into handsets as required.

Furthermore, the Tizen Association has adopted an open governance approach to make sure that the future evolution of the platform cannot be determined by any one of its members or used as a control point for dictating application or services stacks.

This decision on how Tizen is governed is not merely a cosmetic nod to egalitarianism. The Tizen Association is keen to avoid the pitfalls of perceived custodianship by a specific vendor that have previously undermined other broad-based efforts to create a truly open smart device OS.

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR TIZEN

A marathon not a sprint

Although Tizen is being actively designed into all types of smartphones, it is anticipated that the first Tizen smartphone will be high-end.

At first glance this looks risky: this market is the most competitive and well-served smartphone market segment populated with devices such as Apple’s iPhone 5 and Samsung’s top-tier Android devices, notably the 50 million-selling Galaxy S III. However, the aim is to introduce the device into markets where local conditions are favorable to stakeholders including OEMs, operators and content providers. These favorable conditions will be complemented by a Tizen web-based smartphone experience that will positively influence industry perception of the capabilities of HTML5. Although initial markets are expected to be in Europe and Asia, markets such as North America are very much part of the Tizen Association’s mid- to long-term plans.

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Moreover, there is an intense focus on addressing low price points in emerging markets by ensuring the OS can run on very low cost hardware, even extending to cameras and printers. Tizen Compliance Specification requirements set only a minimum bar, leaving a great deal of flexibility for device manufacturers to specify low-, medium-, or high-tier devices. For smartphones, this extends to the choice in standard components such as display (LCD & touch panel) and memory (DRAM and eMMC/flash), which are traditionally the highest cost contributors.

Additionally, device manufacturers have freedom to tailor their bill of materials, because the Tizen Compliance Specification leaves many hardware components optional, such as cameras, NFC and sensors.

Penetration in cost-sensitive emerging markets as well as highly price-competitive markets will be essential to achieving the Tizen Association’s goal of establishing a credible alternative smart OS ecosystem on a global basis. Achieving significant volume in these markets is a key milestone for this initiative.

Supply and demand for Tizen

For a device software platform that has yet to launch on a commercially-available product, Tizen can boast an impressive level of industry support from across the spectrum of OEMs, chipset vendors and mobile operators.

These include:

 OEMs: Fujitsu, Huawei, NEC CASIO, Panasonic, Samsung

 Chipset and software vendors: Intel

 Mobile operators: KT, NTT DOCOMO, Orange, SK Telecom, Sprint, Vodafone As one of the prime architects and drivers of Tizen, Samsung is also taking the lead in

commercializing the platform. The company has confirmed it will launch its first Tizen smartphone by fall 2013 with at least one other device arriving by year end.

Taking a pragmatic approach, Samsung’s initial handsets will see geographically-focused launches. Samsung, Orange and NTT DOCOMO have all confirmed they will launch Tizen smartphones in the second half of 2013. Other operators are expected to commercialize devices from 2014. It is important to all Tizen Association members that Tizen becomes a global success.

Challenges for Tizen

According to Tizen supporters’ internal company goals, the platform needs to reach a sizeable (e.g. mid-teens) self-sustainable market share in smartphones, if it is to be considered a success in terms of the Tizen Association’s stated aim of providing a viable alternative to established mobile platforms.

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This ramp up is considerable and will not be achieved without a sizable effort by the Tizen Association members. Ovum recommends that the Tizen Association should have two main aims in its efforts to redress the balance of the smart device market:

 Building a critical mass of devices, both in the market and in consumers’ hands

 Attracting the support of both brand name and long tail applications and content developers

Building critical mass

The true test of Tizen’s market relevance is the ability of its supporters to sell devices to end users. However, Tizen is arriving at a time when some mobile operators are increasingly wary of

supporting a third ecosystem run by an external force whose interests may not be well aligned with that of the carriers themselves. This will provide an important impetus for operators and OEMs to support and promote Tizen with HTML5 providing a vendor-neutral application platform.

Also providing initial momentum is the strong backing of Samsung, the world’s leading smartphone vendor today, and Intel, for which Tizen is a key tactical weapon in its strategy to explore

commercial opportunities beyond PCs and servers and into connected smart devices, especially the colossal market for smartphones and new, high growth segments such as in-vehicle

infotainment.

Attracting developers

Tizen’s strong emphasis on HTML5 is the right strategy for attracting application developers to the platform. Millions of developers worldwide leverage web technology as a primary means to deliver services and content into the hands of end users. This is by far the largest community of

application developers globally.

Moreover, HTML5 as an application platform for smart devices is now also being aggressively pursued by several other platform providers, among them BlackBerry and the Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox OS. However, focusing on HTML5 is no guarantee of attracting developers. HP/Palm’s webOS is a clear indication of this, the platform’s inability to attract a critical mass of developer interest being an important contributor to its failure to achieve commercial success.

In order to avoid the same fate, Samsung and Intel are investing in a major developer outreach program, targeting both top 100 and long-tail developers through regular developer events and regional App Labs in key markets such as the USA, Europe and Japan.

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APPENDIX

Ovum Consulting

We hope that this analysis will help you make informed and imaginative business decisions. If you have further requirements, Ovum’s consulting team may be able to help you. For more information about Ovum’s consulting capabilities, please contact us directly at [email protected].

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