Watch out Android, here comes bada from Samsung

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 17 November 2009 00:22

Business IT - Technology

Korean cellphone maker Samsung has unveiled its own open mobile platform, dubbed Bada for touch screen based cellphones.

The company has set up a web site, www.bada.com , to promote the platform, which will be unveiled at an event in London in December. It says that the name, Korean for 'ocean', was chosen "to convey the limitless variety of potential applications which can be created using the new platform [and] alludes to Samsung's commitment to a variety of open platforms in the mobile industry."

Samsung claims that bada will be simple for developers to use. "It's one of the most developer-friendly environments available, particularly in the area of applications using Web services [and] bada's ground-breaking user interface can be transferred into a sophisticated and attractive UI design for developers...Samsung bada also offers an easy-to-integrate platform for mobile operators so that mobile operators can provide unique and differentiated services to their customers."

Samsung says it is "deeply committed to the developer community and the application store." It is planning a series of developer days, the developer challenge, and the opening of the application store aimed at "establishing an environment to encourage innovation and creativity among bada developers.

The bada SDK will be unveiled at the bada launch event in December. Samsung plans to launch its first bada powered cellphone in the first half of 2010 and to start selling bada applications through its app store. It expects to have the app store accessible in 30 countries in the second half of 2010 and to have multiple bada phones on the market.

Commenting on the announcement, market research firm In-Stat said "[We] believe the name is ironically appropriate as it highlights the almost limitless variety of mobile OSs...Android, Maemo, LiMo, WebOS, Windows Mobile, RIM, OS X, and Moblin to name a few. 'Anything but Symbian" might have been another appropriate name as that seems to be the message coming from the major handset vendors."

In-Stat vice president of mobile research, Frank Dickson, said: "The momentum of alternative OSs is unmistakable and will continue to cut away at Symbian's market share. While it is difficult to forecast the future of new entrants like bada, the market might of Samsung will give bada life. In the short term, Android seems to have the strong momentum [but] 2010 will be the year of Android."

In-Stat questioned the wisdom of Samsung's decision to introduce yet another platform saying "In-Stat does not believe ...it is a good move at this time unless you can offer a compelling solution to the software developer, the carrier and the consumer."

According to In-Stat, "If the growing army of professional and amateur software developers develop or port applications to a particular OS, the success of the handset platform and opportunity for the carrier could be high. If, however, a particular OS does not garner support from developers, then the result could be disastrous."