NFC functionality spotted on Tizen powered handset

With a number of rumors circulating around the Tizen OS, just the other day we passed along the word from industry sources stating that Samsung has been pulling back on the development of Tizen flavored handsets. Originally expected to have launched early this month, the timeframe for the release has been pushed back to October or November. Just a few days after that report, Russian blogger Eldar Murtazin said that Tizen was DOA.

The lingering feeling is that the Korean based manufacturer was using Tizen as a bargaining chip with Google, threatening to stop producing Android phones and switching to its own OS. It would seem that with the time and effort that was poured into the project so far, it would make sense for Samsung to give the OS a chance just to see how well it does.

A video emerged on Thursday of a Tizen flavored handset being put through the paces and during the video, you can see that this build of the OS, supposedly 2.0, does offer some NFC functionality. Earlier this year, Samsung Executive VP of mobile Lee Young Hee said that the first Tizen device released would be a top shelf model. Were those words for real, or said just to shake up Google a little?



Thanks Anonymous Tipster!

source: YouTube via SimOnlyRadar (translated)