Samsung's rise to No. 1 in global phone sales depended on Google's Android. Nearly all of the 243 million smartphones Samsung shipped through September 30 ran the software, which Google typically gives away in return for mobile advertising revenue and a share of app sales.
Samsung faces the strongest challenge to its phone supremacy after posting the smallest quarterly earnings in more than two years. Operating profit at the mobile-phone unit, the company's biggest cash generator, slumped 74 per cent in the September quarter and sales fell about 33 per cent.
That's prompting the company to look for new sources of revenue. Tizen emerged after Samsung joined Intel Corp. and NTT Docomo Inc., among others, to develop an alternative to Android and build its software capabilities.
Helped by Samsung, LG Electronics Inc. and dozens of other producers, Android runs about 84 per cent of smartphones. That splinters the pool of profits, with many vendors losing money in a crowded market, market researcher Strategy Analytics said in October.
While Apple only has 12.3 per cent of the market, the Cupertino, California-based company's ownership of its operating system gives it greater control of every stage and a slice of each transaction.
"The value of an operating system is like intellectual property, you get a piece of the action regardless of the minor changes and you get to set the rules of the game," Tom Kang, research director at Hong Kong-based Counterpoint Technology Market Research, said by email. "It's much preferable for a giant like Samsung to be able to steer its own fate."
Shares of Samsung rose 0.2 per cent at the close of trade in Seoul. The stock dropped 3.3 per cent in 2014 after a 9.9 per cent decline a year earlier.
Google and Apple typically receive about 30 per cent of every application, song or movie purchased to run on their operating systems.
Google's "other" revenue, which includes the mobile Play store as well as Chromecast hardware, was $1.84 billion in the September quarter. In the same period, Apple had sales of $4.6 billion for iTunes, software and services.
By using its scale in consumer electronics and No. 1 position in TV shipments, Samsung could use the unveiling of Tizen sets to create a new standard for the industry. Samsung's TV shipments may decline to 48 million units this year from 50 million last year, Daishin Securities estimated in December.
Building the TV business around Tizen will help create "a much more intelligent and integrated system," Won Jin Lee, executive vice president at Samsung Electronics, said in a January 1 press release.
Samsung's initial forays into Tizen haven't developed a breakout hit. Its first phone using Tizen was more than a year behind schedule. The wristwatches Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo were released in April, and both are compatible with many of Samsung's Galaxy phones.
The company should improve its future competitiveness by pushing ahead with initiatives for its "smart home" and "smart health" businesses, co-Chief Executive Officer Kwon Oh-hyun told employees in a Jan. 2 message.
Samsung will be the biggest exhibitor of consumer electronics at the Las Vegas show, displaying TVs, tablet computers, smartphones, printers and cameras. The company will show off its Galaxy Note Edge phones with a wraparound screen, its virtual-reality headset and audio products.
Operating profit at the consumer-electronics division, which oversees TVs and appliances, probably dropped to 250 billion won ($US227 million) in the fourth quarter from 660 billion won a year earlier, according to the median estimate of six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.
In the third quarter, the unit's profit dropped to 50 billion won from 350 billion won because of falling prices and competition with Japanese and Chinese producers.
Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong is helping oversee Samsung's transition as he takes more of a leadership role since his father, Chairman Lee Kun-hee, was hospitalised in May.
Samsung is transferring about 500 engineers from its mobile-phone division and allocating them largely to the internet initiative, people familiar with the matter have said.
"There certainly is a limit to just being a hardware maker without having its own operating system," said Ko Jung-woo, a Seoul-based analyst at BS Securities Co. "It's positive for Samsung to brace for the next new battle, where all products will be controlled under one software platform."
