Samsung Electronics Co. is developing a new smartphone that runs on the next Tizen operating system, apparently to decrease its dependence on Google Inc.'s Android platform, industry sources said Tuesday.

The South Korean tech giant currently has a device in the pipeline that will be the company's first smartphone with the impending Tizen 3.0, sources with knowledge of the matter said.

"Samsung has just begun the development of its first smartphone running on Tizen 3.0 OS," said an unnamed source.

The handset, dubbed the SM-Z250, is internally known as "Pride," they said.

Tizen is Samsung's OS for wearables, TVs and some low-budget smartphones from the Z-series, including the Z2 which was launched in August 2016. The Z2, powered by Tizen 2.4, was the third Tizen-powered smartphone from the company.

In 2015, the Tizen was the fifth-most-used smartphone platform in the world. Google's Android and Apple's iOS platforms dominated the market with a combined market share of 96.3 percent. (Yonhap)