Having begun life as Intel and Nokia's ill-fated MeeGo project, the first smartphones running the newly rejuvenated Tizen OS are due to hit the shelves in the second half of 2012.

That's according to a report on DigiTimes, which claims sources have confirmed mobiles, netbooks and in-vehicle devices running the platform are all currently in development.

Certainly, the latter two are highly likely as in-car and netbooks using hardware running MeeGo were released in China and other parts of Asia in 2011. 

Time for Tizen

Tizen, which has close links to the Linux Foundation, is a cooperative effort between Intel and Samsung, with the latter looking to strengthen its hand outside of the Android market, where the Korean giant is currently the dominant player.

But support has spread beyond Intel and Samsung's Tizen Association to other manufacturers and carriers, including Panasonic, NEC, Orange, Vodafone, Sprint, O2's parent company Telefonica, NTT DoCoMo, Sprint and SK Telecom.

Rumours suggest HTC, Acer and Asus are also considering launching Tizen-based devices, with the latter two likely to focus mainly on netbooks for emerging markets.

The first prototype Tizen device was unveiled earlier in May, sporting a 4.3-inch screen and an ARM-based dual-core 1.2GHz processor.

[source: DigiTimes]