Momentum grows for alternative phone system Tizen

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The junior league of smartphone operating systems is getting more competitive. Phones from yet another contender — Tizen — will go on sale this year with a view to eventually playing with the industry leaders: Apple's iOS and Google's Android.

Tizen will rub shoulders with another newcomer, Firefox OS, as well as Microsoft's Windows Phone and a revamped BlackBerry operating system.

Tizen has a powerful backer in Samsung Electronics, which is ditching its own, homebrew operating system Bada in favor of Tizen. Samsung will also use Android.