Samsung has announced that it will offer seven years of Tizen OS updates for its new AI-enabled TVs to compete with Chinese rivals. The announcement was made at Samsung Electronics' Suwon campus last week and will first be applied to TV models released in March 2024, followed by some products released in 2023, according to Business Korea.
The policy extension is a big leap from the updates Samsung currently offers, which typically fix bugs without upgrading the Tizen OS itself. The move comes as Samsung, currently the world's largest smart TV seller, feels its market leadership is being threatened by Chinese companies such as Hisense and TCL. Samsung captured about 29% of the global TV market in the first half of the year, down more than 2% year-on-year, according to research from analytics firm Omdia, with TCL and Hisense close behind at 12.1% and 10%, respectively.
“The seven-year free upgrade offer for Tizen, which applies to AI TVs, will widen the market share gap with Chinese companies,” said Yong Seok-yoon, president of Samsung Electronics' visual display business division. Samsung has not yet identified specific models guaranteed to benefit from the extended updates.
