Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smartwatch 2 to run on Tizen Operating System

The new version of Samsung's Gear smartwatch will run on Tizen, not Google's Android operating system, according to USA Today. Samsung could take the wraps off multiple new Galaxy Gear wearables at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona next week. 

Tizen is a Linux-based operating system backed by Intel, Samsung, and a number of other key partners. Some see it as an alternative to Google Android, which is currently king of the smartphone space. Tizen differentiates itself from other mobile operating systems through its immense scalability and developer friendly features. Tizen’s real purpose, the utility of the software extends far beyond mobile devices, developed for tablets, netbooks, automobile systems and televisions as well.

A previous report had also claimed that the final public release of the Tizen and smartphones running the OS will only be in Q3 of 2014. But now it seems that the company won’t wait that long.

Samsung is already widely expected to announced the Galaxy S5 next week — the latest version of its flagship smartphone, and arguably its single most important product — at the Barcelona event.

On the other hand, this could mean that the new Galaxy Gear will function as a standalone device, like the Pebble smartwatch; the watch might be able to perform its standard functions and run preloaded apps without a connection.

The first version of the Gear smartwatch, launched last year, ran on Android, the Google mobile operating system that has become dominant in the smartphone market. Replacing Android with Tizen for the new version of the Gear gadget suggests that Samsung is not giving up on Tizen despite recent setbacks.

Samsung is also trying to avoid giving Google too much power, as the world's largest Internet search provider develops a version of Android for wearable devices. Some developers and hardware makers are concerned that this new wearable Android OS may be less open than the original mobile platform, although it's too early to tell how Google will approach this.