Samsung's next-generation Galaxy Gear smartwatch has been tipped to run Tizen, not Android, marking one of the first big steps Samsung is taking away from under Google's umbrella. For those who haven't been Googling tech blogs all day, here's a look at what exactly Tizen is and why Samsung is trying to ditch Android.

Tizen is an operating system based on Linux that "provides a robust and flexible environment for application developers, based on HTML5." It's different from Android, and guided by a collective group of companies that includes Samsung. Tizen hasn't gained any real, game-changing momentum, but that's because there haven't been any high-profile devices that have utilized the operating system. Samsung is the largest manufacturer of Android devices, and marketing by Samsung will probably be Tizen's first steps into the limelight.

So why would the most successful Android device manufacturer try and stand on its own? The answer is quite simple: it's not enough for Samsung to just be a hardware company anymore. The South Korean electronics manufacturer has grown exponentially over the last few years, and is looking for new areas to expand into. Android is open source, but it's still a controlled environment -- an environment controlled by all-mighty Mountain View search giant Google.

It's recently come to light that Android isn't as friendly to manufacturers as previously thought. Google is currently under scrutiny from European antitrust officials for a number previously-hidden strings that are attached to the usage of Android. Dubbed a "Mobile Application Distribution Agreement," these strings require that mobile device manufacturers who utilize Android have to incorporate a number of Google apps. This means making Google the default search engine, as well as having to preinstall some Google utilities. For companies looking to capitalize on their own, without having Google eat up prime operating system real estate, it's obvious that Android doesn't cut it in the long run.

Building up Tizen allows Samsung to slowly break its ties with Google as it becomes its own dominating hardware and software firm. Introducing Tizen through a smartwatch is a smart move. The potential backlash is mitigated since it is a relatively new type of device to which people haven't grown accustomed. Scrapping Android for Tizen on a more popular device, such as the Galaxy S or Galaxy Note series, would surely result in some intense consumer backlash. Samsung will reportedly also show off some other Tizen devices, such as a Tizen smartphone alongside the Galaxy Gear 2 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week, but don't expect many of those to make it to the United States. 

Samsung has gone on record to say that it is hesitant to release Tizen-based devices in the United States given the complete and utter control Android and iOS exert over the market.

"We don't feel the U.S. is a great test market for those kinds of products," Ryan Bidan, Samsung's director of product marketing for its U.S. mobile operations told FierceWireless earlier this year. "The U.S. market is pretty mature. Bringing a new entrant here that doesn't meet a certain performance bar would be a challenge. Recognizing that, we don't want to set ourselves up for failure."