Is it the end of Tizen? Well, it looks like Samsung is working on a Wear OS watch, according to a consistently accurate Samsung leaker. Samsung’s Wear OS watch rumor was quickly followed by a report that Samsung had left a bit of code in their kernel source which acknowledges a product called “Merlot” that has something to do with Wear OS.
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The name alone doesn’t reveal much. What is interesting, however, is that one of these links directly follows a Wear OS link. Observers, therefore, assume that “merlot” is a smartwatch that will run the Google operating system in the future. However, it is not yet possible to deduce more precise properties of the device, reports Computer Bild.
It also remains unclear whether this find actually indicates the end of Tizen. It is conceivable that Samsung only plans to offer an already available smartwatch model soon as a variant with Wear OS in order to create a greater variety of products. With a Samsung smartwatch with the Google operating system, users would have two advantages.
On one hand, there would be a larger number of third-party apps and, on the other, smartphones and smartwatches could work more seamlessly with one another. In the past, however, Google has shown little interest in the further development of Wear OS. Voice activation using the words “Okay, Google” has been causing problems for months. In addition, users miss an app for YouTube Music after removing Google Play Music. However, the group has already taken care of the corresponding application for the Apple Watch.
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This is noteworthy because Samsung hasn’t touched Wear OS since 2014’s Gear Live and has instead only released watches running their own Tizen operating system. As one of the bigger players in the smartwatch game, it would be a huge move for Samsung to switch platforms.
