Verizon CEO: Samsung could see success with own mobile OS
updated 02:02 pm EDT, Sat September 8, 2012
Exec cites wide device array as potential counter to Android, iOS
The CEO of the nation's largest wireless carrier thinks that Samsung could shake up the mobile marketplace should the electronics giant decide to move to its own operating system. CNet reports that Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam called Samsung "a potential elephant in the room" at an investor conference on Friday. McAdam believes that, should Samsung decide to leverage its massive install base across a range of consumer and household electronics, the company would make a formidable competitor for Apple, Google, Microsoft, and others.
McAdam said Samsung could do well if the company chose to focus its attention on its own OS, calling Samsung a potential "dark horse" in the wireless market. He also said that the company's recent defeat in its patent case with Apple could spur Samsung to more aggressively develop its own operating system.
Samsung already has an internally-developed operating system in the form of Bada, but its best selling handsets run Google's Android OS. Samsung also makes smartphones and computers running Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8.
It's uncertain whether McAdam was referring to yet another operating system, Tizen, and the possibility that Samsung might roll out devices running that OS. Tizen was developed by Samsung in collaboration with Intel, and it is said to be scalable from smart appliances to smartphones to computers and televisions. A shift to Tizen would signal trouble particularly for Google, as developers have already shown off a technology allowing Tizen devices to run apps built for Android.
