SEOUL: Samsung Electronics is planning to use the Tizen 3.0 operating system to feature a cloud service with its new smartphone in the second half of next year, according to industry sources.

There has been speculation that Samsung had scrapped the plan to provide a cloud service – to be called “S Cloud” – as it repeatedly delayed the unveiling of the system, even for its much-anticipated Galaxy S3.

“Though the attempts to launch it failed several times over the last few years, Samsung Electronics seems ready now,” said an industry source involved in the project.

According to this source, Samsung has recently hired a string of experts in cloud and big data services, some of whom have experience in running and building Amazon servers.

“The motivation behind Samsung providing a cloud service is not to generate profits from the service,” commented Kang Hong-yol, a senior researcher at the Korea Information Society Development Institute. “They ultimately want to use it to potentially connect the devices of Samsung and Tizen alliance members.”

Samsung is eager to create a platform where users can work on any particular device – whether it is a home appliance, electronic item or automobile – which has smart functions like a computer, and save data on the cloud hub, another industry source said.

Its appliances and electronics have already begun to include smart functions. The Tizen-based camera NX300 has already been released, and a Tizen-based refrigerator will be unveiled at the 2014 International CES next January.

“Tizen 3.0, to be unveiled in the third quarter of next year, will support diverse devices such as automobiles, cameras, televisions and refrigerators, as well as mobile devices,” Mark Skarpness, director of systems engineering at Intel Corp., said at the Tizen Developer Summit Korea in early November.

It was also confirmed that the Tizen-based smartphone TRATS2 received the domestic radio certification from the National Radio Research Agency last month.

– By arrangement with the ANN/The Korea Herald –