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Only a few more days till Valentine’s Day and being broke again for you the one you love. Still loving the fact that the Geezam blog has achieved the milestone of being awarded the Best Technology Blog at the Jamaica Blog Awards as chronicled by Kelroy in Geezam.com wins Best Technology Blog at Jamaica Blog Awards.

The year’s moving so Fast!

CES (Computer Electronics Show) 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada revealed yet again that the Technology World still punch drunk from Mobile Computing, Tablets and 4K TV’s. There were some moments, about which I’ll pen articles I’m waiting until this Kickstarter-esque projects flesh out into real products later in the year. Is it me, or did it seem that CES was mainly about Start-ups, with the big Tech heavyweights, Apple, Microsoft and Google M.I.A.

The only innovation thus far being a trend towards Open Source Gaming in the guise of Nvidia’s Android based “Project Shield” as per the article Nvidia shows off “Project Shield” mobile gaming console. But a silent revolution is underway in the Mobile world as Samsung, maker of the most popular smartphone to date the Samsung Galaxy SIII preps Tizen OS as announced on Thursday January 3rd 2013, which they’d promise since December 2012.

Tizen OS is the result of a partnership with Intel and is a HTML5 supporting Open Source Linux based evolution of the MeeGo project that Intel had failed to complete and was seeking a hardware partner to continue its development. As such, the Tizen OS now wears the envious crown of being the successor to Bada OS as described in Samsung’s “bada” mobile operating system gets updated to 2.0 , which since its debut at the Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona on February 2010 had failed to make an impression with the smartphone crowd.

Tizen OS is really Samsung’s last ditch effort to wean themselves from their addiction to Google Android and put them into Third Place Globally, possibly beating out RIM Blackberry 10 OS in the process as described in RIM sends out official invitations to its Blackberry 10 OS, Z10 Launch and PlayBook Tablet Launch.

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In the process, by owning their own Open Source Platform for smartphones and Tablets, then can make money from selling Apps instead of just handset sales with Tizen OS eventually replacing Google Android on all of their smartphone OS and eventually their own App Store and possibly even a Search Engine by 2015.

Samsung is hoping that the their OS, which they tout as being more flexible and open than Google Android in terms of handset makers and Developers being able to tailor the OS to their desires, will be attractive enough to woo more backers to join. Throw into that sweet batter the fact it can support high-end HTML5 Applications and the ability to port any App from any OS unto Tizen OS without having to repackage or recode should be attraction enough.

Already they have NTT DoCoMo, a Japanese Telecom Provider in one of their major markets and Sprint for the US pledging support for handsets sporting the new OS, which may appears as early as the Second Quarter of 2013. They too, are keen on taking a slice of the App Economy pie created by Apple and Google.

The reasons are rather compelling. Both Apple and Samsung dominate the smartphone market, their combined shipments topping 700m smartphones in 2012 alone, a bumper crop year for smartphones. Samsung is the marker leader in terms of handset sales Globally according to the stats of Gartner and IDC for the Fourth Quarter of 2012, with their Google Android powered smartphones and Apple iPhone 5’s showing an increase of almost 50% over the corresponding period in 2011.

Yes despite this, the fact that Samsung does not own the OS means they only make money from the sale of handsets and not continued Revenue from the smartphone OS in terms of customer purchasing Apps or using their Search Engine and being served up contextual ads. Apple owns both the OS and the Hardware, with the Apple App Store being their continuous cash cow, making more revenue even after they’ve sold smartphone.

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All After-sales revenue being made on the Google Android Phones from the Google Play App Store goes straight to Google, leaving the Telecom Providers and Handset makers only with revenue from handset sales, Contract and Data Plans. In effect, the Telecom Providers have been relegate to being a “Dumb pipe”, allowing Apple and Google to make continued profits form offering content Services over their Data Networks.

Interestingly in the App Economy the gap’s closing between the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, which is now only short some 25,000 apps, Apple still makes more money, according to App Analytics firm Distimo.

According to App Analytics firm Distimo, the Apple App Store made US$15 million in average daily revenue in November 2012, mainly from in-App Purchases from Freemium Apps as well as Premium Apps as predicted in Smartphones and Apps – Freemium Games are No. 1. The Google Play Store barely manages US$$3.5 million in average daily revenue achieved by Google Play App Store. Note these are stats for BOTH smartphones and Tablets, a represent a strong indication of the revenue stream being made by In-App Sales.

Now if that’s not a compelling enough argument to get into the after sales market of Apps with their own OS, I’m not sure what is. And Samsung’s not alone in their vainglorious attempts to get rid of Google Android, albeit for other OS contenders, it’s mainly about survival in the so called “Post-PC era” as opposed to making money. This as the World goes towards Mobile Computing as opined in How the Apple iPad killed Ultrabooks, Printing and the Mouse as the World Rediscovers Tablets.

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