Going Solo ⇥ bloomberg.com

Jungah Lee for Bloomberg:

“We plan to release new, competitive Tizen devices within this year and will keep expanding the lineup depending on market conditions,” Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung said in an e-mailed statement today. The company didn’t elaborate on model specifications, prices or timeframe for their debut.

The new handsets will come as Samsung looks to reduce its reliance on Google Inc.’s Android operating system after the Internet search company acquired handset maker Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. for $12.5 billion in May. Executives from Intel, Samsung, NTT DoCoMo Inc. and Vodafone Group Plc formed the Tizen Association last year to support the open-source software.

As Apple seeks to reduce their dependence on other companies with their own processors and cartography, Samsung is doing the same. The ecosystem silos of today are already making it difficult for users to change platforms; what will this move do for the future? What if the version of Android on Motorola phones becomes proprietary to Google?