Tizen's goal, like MeeGo's before it, was clearly defined as producing a baseline Linux distribution suitable for consumer electronics products: from handheld devices like tablets to more embedded-flavored-platforms like smart TV and in-vehicle systems. Samsung and LiMo added a mobile phone handset to the mix.

The first release came in January 2012 and consisted of public Git repositories for the core OS and a "preview" of the SDK. Perhaps most notably, that release was the community's first look at how Tizen would merge in the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (EFL) graphical toolkit from LiMo and the project's HTML 5-based API for application development