Samsung is apparently set to release its first Tizen-powered smartphone in February next year, putting it around four months behind its anticipated schedule, with no reason given for the delay.

According to Bloomberg, the first device will be sold by operators NTT Docomo and Orange, both of which have already stated their support for the fledgling platform.

Yi Woo Bok, a principal engineer at Samsung’s software R&D centre, said: “We’re trying to prepare every technology that we can come up with since it’s hard to predict how the market will change.”

At Mobile World Congress earlier this year, Docomo and Orange announced plans to offer devices commercially “in the second half of 2013”, with Samsung also stating it would offer smartphones in a similar timeframe.

However, it was subsequently reported that Samsung had slowed its development efforts, due to the risk of launching new devices powered by the unproven OS at a time when the company is the dominant force in the Android space.

According to reports this week, the South Korean company has already debuted its first Tizen-powered device, but rather than a smartphone or tablet, it is a digital camera – called NX-300M.

Indeed, the ability for the platform to run across a range of connected devices including smart TVs as well as mobile products is one of the platform’s major selling points.

Introducing the platform in such a device has a number of benefits for the handset number one: it does not need to integrate mobile connectivity, and users will not be expecting access to a fully-fledged apps-and-content ecosystem.

At an event this week, the Tizen Association announced 36 new companies had pledged their support for the platform, and each “has the potential to join relevant Tizen Association working groups and to participate in Tizen Association meetings, giving them more insight and potential input into the development of the Tizen OS”.

Standout names include consumer electronics companies Panasonic and Sharp. Also on the list is Nokia’s HERE location-based technology division.

The next version of the platform – Tizen 3.0 – has also been given a preview, ahead of anticipated availability in the third quarter of next year.

Headline changes include support for 64-bit processors with Intel and ARM architectures, a new 3D user interface framework, and support for the Crosswalk HTML5 runtime.