Samsung launches a $9 million incentive program to kickstart app development for Tizen.

Samsung is known for a lot of things, and one of it is its high-end handhelds that are running on Android. Unbeknownst to many, however, the South Korean phone maker also has plenty of mobile device offerings in the low-end market, and it has been fiddling around with another mobile OS that's not based on the AOSP.

In the first half of 2014, Samsung released the Samsung Gear S2 smart watch running on Tizen, an open source, Linux-based operating system. Early in 2015, Samsung released the Samsung Z1 smartphone, which also ran on Tizen, in India for approximately $127. It was followed by the Z3 that got rolled out in Oct. 2015.

With a growing number of devices running on the said OS, Samsung is looking to better the customer experience, which it plans by expanding the Tizen app portfolio. To rope in app developers, Samsung will roll out the Tizen Mobile App Incentive Program will be rolled early next year.

"As a committed leader of the Tizen platform, we strive to further benefit, expand upon and evolve the Tizen ecosystem," says Woncheol Chai, VP of Global Product Management, Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics. "We're excited to launch this new incentive program to help develop and bring the best of mobile apps to the Tizen community as well as provide customers with a better mobile experience."

Note that Samsung is one of the Tizen Association's current members. Panasonic, SK Telecom, Vodafone, Huawei and Intel, among others, are also part of the said organization that

The Tizen Mobile App Incentive Program

As mentioned, the incentive program offers a maximum of $9 million to app developers. The amount will be broken down into $10,000 cash prizes that will be awarded to the OS' monthly top 100 downloaded apps. This will be done over the course of 9 months.

The program will start at 00:00 (GMT) of Feb. 1, 2017 and last until 23:59 (GMT) of Oct. 31, 2017. The registration period starts in early Jan. 2017. More details regarding the program will be released by then.

According to Samsung, winners will get notifications every 10th of the following month, which will start on March 10, 2017 and end on Nov. 10, 2017.

How To Participate in the Tizen Mobile App Incentive Program

To participate, developers must first produce apps or games with the Tizen SDK & Tools that are targeted for Samsung's Tizen-based devices, such as the Z1, Z2, Z3 and future releases that will come next year. They then need to be part of the Tizen Store seller office and register their apps.

The last step is to have app registered on the incentive program. However, as mentioned above, the registration won't be open until early Jan. 2017.

Any interested party can join except for Samsung employees and that of organizations that are involved with the program. Apps that are funded, be it full or partial, by Samsung and Tizen are not eligible.

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