Samsung Z1 Receiving Cold Shoulder From Indian Market

Samsung launched its first Tizen OS smartphone earlier this month, starting in India for 5700 INR ($92), however early uptake on the Samsung Z1 is low in the country.

Reuters claims the lackluster amount of sales in the region is due to several key factors, including the brand new Tizen OS, the poor specifications and Samsung not being the most popular brand in the country.

The Samsung Z1 offers a 4-inch WVGA screen, dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 4GB of storage. Even for just $92 off contract, these are dismal specs when compared to the Xiaomi Redmi, Micromax Canvas A1 and Moto G.

Several commentators have likened the Z1 to a smartphone released in 2010, and Samsung has not made an effort (like other providers) to trim the price and beef the specs, potentially selling at a loss.

Tizen OS is not even a gamble at this point, it is just a stupid move, especially when thousands of devices are available running Android. Samsung might claim its software is more sophisticated, more secure, more everything, but it lacks Google services and the marketplace Android provides.

Samsung decided not to go the route of BlackBerry and allow Android devices to be ported over to BB10, instead offering incentives to developers who work on Tizen OS, like 100 percent of the revenue from sales.

This revenue deal does not seem to be winning over many developers, since the platform is only available in India and is not doing well in the region.

India is one of the most competitive markets, and despite BlackBerry, Microsoft and Google thinking it is a dumping ground for low-end devices, it actually takes quite a bit of gusto to win over Indian consumers.

Perhaps between this year and the next, Samsung will figure out what it did wrong, but this is not a good start for the Tizen project, which has been worked on for the past three years as an alternative to Android.