The UK Mobile Phone Blog

Samsung Bada: Open mobile platform coming in 2010

Samsung have announced they are working on a new open mobile platform called Bada which is set to be available from early next year. With the Koran manufacturers phones currently sporting Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile, is there room for a fourth OS? Read on as we take a first look at Bada as we try to find out…

Well firstly, Bada is a new user interface that will come pre-installed on new Samsung phones (and is likely to replace ToucWiz, Samsung’s previous UI of choice). Expected to play just as nice with entry level phones as high end smartphones, Bada aims to bring smartphone functionality to the masses. How do Samsung plan to achieve this? Simple. With Apps. Lots and lots of apps. The Bada Software Development Kit (SDK) is being rolled out to developers next month which should ensure a good number of apps are available when the first Bada phones start shipping in 2010.

Samsung have had an excellent year, shipping 200 million phones in 2009 but are expecting Bada to increase this by 10 to 20 %. With Samsung currently sitting pretty as the worlds second largest mobile phone vendor, Nokia (the current number one) will be nervously looking over their shoulder. But, with the announcement of Bada, what does this mean for Samsung’s other operating systems? Whilst Windows Mobile and Android can breath a sigh of relief, it’s bad news for the beleaguered Symbian OS as Samsung plan to quit the OS in favour of Bada.

Samsung have also alluded to the fact that Bada will compliment rather than compete against the manufacturers Android and Windows phones. Could we see Bada apps running on future Samsung Android and Windows Mobile handsets? We certainly wouldn’t bet against it. Set to launch next year, keep ‘em peeled on the Blog for news on the first phones to be rocking Samsung Bada.