Samsung Electronics is predicted to launch its new Tizen-powered smartphone Z2 in India this week, despite continued lackluster sales of the budget mobile products, according to analysts said on Monday.

The South Korean electronics giant sent out invitations to the Indian press for a product launch event slated for Tuesday.

The invitations did not specify the product to be unveiled, but industry insiders say that the event will be about Samsung releasing its new Tizen-based phone Z2 to one of the world‘s promising mobile market. The Indian mobile market grew about 23 percent in the first quarter, according to local reports, and is expected to overtake the US as the second-largest mobile market in the world.

Despite the market growth of mobile products, Tizen-powered Samsung phones, showed a poor performance after they were first unveiled in India early last year.

“Sales figure of Tizen-powered phones in India is currently too small to analyze. It has not yet become mainstream in the nation,” said Song Eun-jeong, an analyst from HI Investment & Securities.

The share of the entire Tizen-based phones in the global market currently stands at around 0.2 percent while the combined shares of Google and Apple are 99 percent, according to Strategy Analytics.

Still, Samsung would continue to invest in its own operating system for the time being with an ultimate aim of leaving Google’s Android, experts predicted.

“Despite low performance and negative views on Tizen-powered phones, Samsung is expected to continue unveiling them in low-end markets to expand its budget smartphone sales and to strengthen its own operating systems,” Han Sang-lin, a professor of Hanyang University Business School, told The Korea Herald.

Z2 is reportedly to sport Tizen 3.0, a 3.97-inch or 4.5-inch display, a video graphics array front camera, 1 gigabyte/8 gigabyte memory configuration and a 1,500mAh or 2,000mAh batteries. The price tag of the new phone would be at around 75,000 won ($66).

Apart from India, Z2 is expected to be unveiled in seven more nations including Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria.

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)