Samsung’s Tizen-powered Z1 smartphone is reportedly “increasing its popularity” in the markets where it is available, although the figures suggested are small when looking at the size of the countries involved.

According to Business Korea, “industry sources” indicate that 100,000 consumers have bought Z1s in India and 20,000 in Bangladesh, following launches in mid-January and early-February respectively. But in these markets, around seven million and 500,000 smartphones are sold monthly (again, respectively).

The report said that while this gives Samsung an unimpressive market share, this is still “higher than expected given that it runs on a minor operating system”.

Research firm Strategy Analytics said that it expects this level of success to continue during 2015, even as the device is rolled-out to more markets including Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

Reports earlier this year said that the Z1 had received a “frosty” welcome following its launch. Despite its low price, its feature set is unimpressive when compared with competing devices at similar price points.

And the lack of a mature apps ecosystem remains a major hurdle, especially compared with Android and Windows Phone, which are also supported on low-cost hardware.

Samsung is also using the Tizen platform for smart TVs and wearable devices.