Samsung has delayed the release of its first Tizen-powered smartphone

Samsung Electronics said Monday that it would postpone the release of its first smartphone running the Tizen OS, the Samsung Z, which was set to launch first in Russia. The delay does not bode well for the company’s attempt to move away from its heavy reliance on Google’s Android OS. Tizen is an open source, Linux-based system that the South Korean company is using to mount a challenge to dominant smartphone software players Google and Apple. When it announced the Samsung Z in June, it said that the device would be available in Russia in the third quarter.

Samsung Electronics Co. said Monday it would postpone sales in Russia of a smartphone running a homegrown operating system called Tizen, dealing a fresh setback to the Korean smartphone maker’s efforts to carve out a niche for itself in mobile software and services. In a brief statement Monday, Samsung said that it was postponing the launch of the Samsung Z, which was slated to go on sale in Russia in the third quarter of this year. The company cited a need to “further enhance [the] Tizen ecosystem,” a reference to an apparent shortage of apps for the nascent platform. The company didn’t offer specifics on any future plans for the operating system, or on the timing of any coming Tizen smartphone launches. The delay is the latest postponement for an ill-fated project that Samsung has pursued for several years in an attempt to shape more of the user experience–and reap more of the profits–in the smartphone era. While Samsung handily outsells its handset rivals, almost all of its mobile devices run Google Inc.’s Android operating system, giving the Mountain View, Calif.-based search giant control over most of the activity that takes place on users’ devices.