Tizen-based Z4 was launched in India last week

Samsung launched Z4, the Tizen-powered 4G smartphone globally last week. Significantly, India was the first to get the phone, and rightly so! With over 500 million feature phone users, the Z4 is the perfect stepping stone for Indian consumers looking to shift to a smartphone.

Since the launch of the maiden Tizen smartphone, Z1, in 2015, several millions of Tizen phones have sold, with consumers, especially first time smartphone buyers, giving it’s easy to use interface a thumbs up.

The Z4, which comes with ‘Double’ benefits as far as camera, flash and style go, is expected to drive up Tizen adoption in the country.

India Newsroom team spoke to Mr. Dipesh Shah, who as the Managing Director of Samsung R&D Bangalore, oversees much of the cutting-edge work involving Tizen.

Mr. Dipesh Shah is the Managing Director of Samsung R&D Bangalore

“India is unique because even today about 50% of new phones sold in the market are feature phones. Compare that to China which has gone past features phones three years ago,” said Mr. Shah.

Tizen is rightly positioned for the first-time smartphone users as its platform is very light and very fast.

“As the market leader, we at Samsung consider it our priority to facilitate this journey towards smartphones. Our affordable Tizen series has been instrumental in catalyzing the smartphone upgrade,” Mr. Asim Warsi, Senior Vice President, Samsung India Electronics, said.

Today, India is one of the primary markets for Tizen, with shipments also going to consumers in other markets.