Samsung has reportedly been preparing to release smartphones and tablets running on its Tizen platform. The latest rumor is that instead of releasing the Z2 as a successor to its existing Z1 running on its nascent operating system, the Korean mobile manufacturer will directly launch the Z3 Tizen smartphone in the second half of this year.

Samsung Z1 is the first Tizen OS powered smartphone to be released by the company and is presently available in a limited number of markets where it has been well-received, particularly by first time smartphone buyers. Measuring 120.4 x 63.2 x 9.7mm and weighing 112 grams, the Samsung Z1 features a 4-inch TFT LCD Touchscreen display with a resolution of 800x480 that offers 233 PPI.

The Tizen 2.3 OS powered smartphone runs on a Spreadtrum SC7727S 2-core processor clocked at 1.2 GHz, and sports a 3.15 MP rear camera with LED flash, along with features such as face detection and geo tagging. Samsung Z1 offers 4 GB of internal storage, which is expandable up to 68 GB via MicroSD card and packs a 1500 mAh battery offering up to 8 hours of talk time.

There have been rumors of Samsung planning to release the Samsung Z2, along with a "global" Tizen smartphone in additional markets. Just last week, a live image had emerged from Korea claiming to be a variant of the entry-level Samsung Z1 with 4G LTE connectivity. The device had a completely different design than the Samsung Z1 and looked more like the previously rumored Samsung Z2 in black color with a similar front-facing camera.

Now according to the latest reports, Samsung plans to entirely skip the Z2 and directly launch the Z3 Tizen powered smartphone, which will be more powerful and smarter than the first-generation Z1. The new Z3 is expected to be 9mm thick and feature a 5-inch display. The upcoming Tizen smartphone will be powered by a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 dual-core chipset clocked at 1.2 GHz, paired with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. The Z3 will sport a 2MP front camera and a 5MP rear camera with flash support, as well as offer various connectivity options such as Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct and Bluetooth 4.0. Samsung's next-gen Tizen smartphone will feature an accelerometer and proximity sensor, and will be powered by a 2,000 mAh battery.

There have been rumors of a global launch for the next Tizen smartphone, though Samsung has not officially confirmed or denied the reports.