The Linux-based Tizen operating system is Samsung’s open-source platform designed to take on iOS, Android and Windows Phone. While it’s already released and present on the Samsung Gear 2 smart watch, a smartphone running the operating system—the ZEQ 9000—was expected to be launched in Russia shortly after the Mobile World Congress 2014 in February. However, this was delayed due to hardware complications.

Launch partner Orange decided not to release the phone in January because the OS “is not as mature as the company may have expected at this point.” Orange and Japan’s largest cell phone carrier, NTT DoCoMo, have indicated that they are no longer interested in the platform.

Now, the smartphone launch has been delayed again because of concerns about the small number of applications available for the phone, according to Samsung. It is unclear when the smartphone would be available for launch, but given the dominance of Android and iOS, it may be difficult to attract top developers to create apps for the said OS.

The smartphone is expected to have a 4.8in screen, WXGA resolution, a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 processor and single- and dual-sim SKUs.

See a comparison table of smartphone suppliers on GlobalSources.com