Tizen OS update: Samsung and Intel’s Tizen Association, which is developing the upcoming smartphone OS has gained 15 new partners recently, according to PC World. It includes three huge Asian brands and one major U.S. Carrier.

In the PC World report, it noted that smartphone maker ZTE, Japanese mobile operator Softbank Mobile and Chinese search giant Baidu are some of the newest partners of the Tizen Association. By lending their support, these companies will have greater access to shaping Tizen. Major U.S. carrier Sprint is also named as partner.

The 15 new brands joins other technology heavyweights like eBay and Panasonic as members of the Tizen Association. Accuweather is part of the new brands joining the Tizen group.

There are no vendors currently offering Tizen-powered devices but some handsets with the OS are expected to make an appearance at the Mobile World Congress two weeks from now. Leaked images of a Tizen-powered unit from Samsung have been leaked online. It’s also expected that the platform will be on tablets, laptops, and even printers, TVs, and cameras.

According to PC World, Softbank doesn’t intend to take a lead role in the development of Tizen, a company spokesman shared with the publication Thursday. The Japanese mobile operator simply wants to study the technology behind the platform and no decisions have been made as to whether it will offer a Tizen device in the future, PC World noted.

NTT DoCoMo, a major competitor of Softbank, and also a member of the Tizen Association had originally wanted to launch a phone based on the mobile OS. But it backed out of the plan last month citing that market conditions for such a device were off. The Japanese telecom giant, however, is not abandoning the OS.

ZTE is said to be releasing a Tizen smartphone dubbed ZTE Geek at the Mobile World Congress later this month, but according to a company spokesman, its future phones will still largely be developed around Android. Most of ZTE’s devices are built with Google’s mobile platform, but the company has been a big supporter of Mozilla Firefox’s mobile operating system as well. PCWorld noted that the Chinese handset maker is expected to bring out a second-generation Firefox OS phone in the first half of this year.