I suppose you could sand it down to remove the texture?

I am no expert but I really think that you will need to do some sanding to knock down the gloss (to allow anything else to adhere well) and then apply something to prime/fill the texture to make it smoother, otherwise the adhesive on the tiles might not have enough good surface area to grip adequately. I am not at all sure that paint primer could do the job.

Maybe skimcoat the wall with drywall compound to smooth it out?

I would skim coat as well. Whose idea was it to put texture like that on walls? Ugh.

from the HD webiste:

We usually don't recommand to install Smart TIles on a textured wall but It really depends how textured it is. Maybe you can send a photo to quinco@thesmarttiles.com and our experts will have a look at it.

Did you end up doing the peel and stick on orange peel texture? I'm in that dilemma now and I hate the thought of the mess and work of sanding it all down.

I am glad I came across this post. My kitchen is being remodeled and they will be texturing the walls today because we went with an open concept into a small living room and dining room they are texturing the whole area. I am going to tell them to NOT texture behind the stove area because I am not sure what I want to put behind the stove for a backsplash yet. I am thinking of doing something easily removable in the future so I can change it up if I get tired of looking at it. I am even thinking of doing ceramic tiles on plywood and using french cleats to hang it.