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Bada-Bing: Samsung Intros New Mobile OS

Samsung has taken it upon itself to step up and deliver what no one asked for: another mobile operating system. Today, Samsung announced "Bada," a new, open platform that Samsung hopes will be the feature-phone OS of the future.

I just can't understand what Samsung is thinking here. Samsung already makes phones that run Windows Mobile, Symbian, Android, Brew, Java and others. You name it, Samsung delivers it. With such an amazing array of operating systems at its beck and call, why bother creating its own system? The only thing I can come up with is "control" and "putting its own stamp on the industry".

If you believe the flowery language in the press release, Bada is a developers dream operating system. It gives them unequaled access to every system on the phone, including the dialer, contacts app and messaging apps. Samsung stops short of calling Bada a new smartphone OS, but says that it is meant to offer smartphone features to more mass market handsets. That means better application availability, better web-based services and better social networking powers.

Um, but isn't that the point of Android, an OS that Samsung already supports?

Nearly every adjective that Samsung uses describes bada makes it sound like the second coming: rich, powerful, easy, simple, opportunities, and friendly. Samsung said in a prepared statement, "The name ‘bada’, which means ‘ocean’ in Korean, was chosen to convey the limitless variety of potential applications which can be created using the new platform. It also alludes to Samsung’s commitment to a variety of open platforms in the mobile industry. Samsung bada also represents the fresh challenges and opportunities available to developers, as well as the entertainment which consumers will enjoy once the new platform is open."

Rather than being compatible with other platforms, bada is only for Samsung handsets. Samsung may be one of the world's largest mobile phone makers, but that's an interesting restriction for what is increasingly becoming an "open-minded" industry.

The SDK for bada will be available in Decemebr 2009, and Samsung expects the first handsets to arrive in the second half of 2010.

Tony Soprano would surely love this mobile operating system, and have all employees of the (fictional) Bada-Bing! adopt it immediately.

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