NTT DoCoMo backs away from early 2014 Tizen release

NTT DoCoMo says it has scratched plans for a March launch of Samsung’ss first Tizen smartphone, and the Japanese carrier offered no revised timetable. Japan’s largest mobile carrier and one of the most devoted backers of the mobile Linux OS Tizen said on Jan. 17 that it has postponed a planned March released of the first Tizen smartphone, and is indefinitely shelving the project, according to The Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch. NTT DoCoMo spokesman So Hiroki was said to have told reporters, “The market is not big enough to support three operating systems at this time.” Hiroki cited research by IDC Japan that estimated a stagnant 2.2 percent growth in Japan from April through September 2013.