Samsung is finally changing its poor practice of not upgrading its Tizen-based Smart TVs by committing to 7 years of free OS upgrades, starting with the 2024 models.
FlatpanelsHD has long criticized major Smart TV brands, such as LG, Samsung and Panasonic, for not providing OS upgrades after the sale, reserving the latest OS versions for next year's models. Since 2018, we have prominently highlighted this issue in the conclusion of our reviews, resulting in lower scores.
This has been poor practice among TV makers since they introduced their proprietary operating systems – webOS, Tizen and myHomeScreen – almost a decade ago. They typically update only the firmware or software to address bugs, but did not upgrade the OS itself. Meanwhile, manufacturers using Android TV (Google TV), Roku and Fire TV have provided OS upgrades to varying extents.
In late 2023, LG finally made a commitment to upgrade webOS in 2024 models, and some 2023 and 2022 models, while Panasonic abandoned its myHomeScreen platform in favor of Fire TV. This left Samsung as the only major TV maker with no plans to upgrade Tizen in existing TVs.
Samsung commits to OS upgrades
Now, feeling the pressure, Samsung has also finally committed to Tizen OS upgrades for its TVs, according to The Korea Economic Daily and Business Korea.
- "With the seven-year free upgrade of Tizen applied to AI TVs, we will widen the gap in market share with Chinese companies," announced Yong Seok-woo, president and head of Samsung’s Visual Display Business.
Samsung's Tizen-based Smart TV
Samsung’s Tizen OS in 2024 models will be upgraded for free for 7 years, with some 2023 models also receiving upgrades. Although details are still scarce, this initiative will likely result in 6 OS updates over 7 years, similar to LG's 5-year commitment for 4 webOS updates. FlatpanelsHD is chasing details. The next major version of Tizen is expected to be introduced at CES 2025 in January.
The broken Smart TV promise
While we are pleased to see Samsung finally changing its poor practice, it is unfortunate that it took almost a decade to reach this point.
This is the broken promise of Smart TVs, a form of planned obsolescence that has led to apps either running poorly or disappearing altogether on Smart TVs only a few years old. Often, users mistakenly blame the streaming service for these issues. Tizen runs on over 270 million Smart TVs.
In contrast, Apple has set the example for TV operating systems with tvOS. The first Apple TV with tvOS, the Apple TV HD, was introduced in 2015 – around the same time as the first Smart TVs with Tizen and webOS – and continues to receive updates, including the upcoming tvOS 18 this fall.
- Source: Korea Economic Daily, Business Korea
