Samsung has finally managed a Tizen OS release, after over two years of development in partnership with Intel.

The Samsung Z1 will launch exclusively in India to kickstart the Tizen OS growth. It will be available for 5,700 INR ($92) today on various online stores.

Samsung has struggled to bring the Tizen smartphone to market, delaying an early launch in Russia, where Samsung was scouting for available Tizen developers.

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In 2013, Samsung also delayed the first Tizen OS smartphone launch indefinitely, meaning the Z1 is the second Tizen smartphone the South Korean giant has developed.

Internally, the Samsung Z1 features a four-inch WVGA display, 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 768MB of RAM, 4GB of onboard storage and a 3.1MP rear camera. Samsung has added a microSD card slot and dual-SIM support, for the Indian market.

Tizen OS 2.3 will be available at launch on the Samsung Z1, and Indian users will get a few freebies in a 'Joy Box' package, including trial versions of Hungama.com, nextGTv and Bot TV and 500MB of 3G data from Airtel.

Samsung has an excellent price point for the Indian market, considering the Xiaomi Redmi retails for $150, similar to the Moto G. However, Indian consumers may worry about Tizen OS, a new platform lacking the sophistication of Android.

Tizen OS is Samsung's way of removing so much reliance on Google's Android OS, but Samsung needs the Z1 to become popular, or Android will continue to be Samsung's main route for revenue.

To make up for the lack of smartphones running Tizen OS, Samsung has ported the platform onto smartwatches and smart TVs, showing the platform can scale down to wearables and up to large scale TVs.

TagsSamsung Z1, Tizen OS