Bada: Samsung’s New OS. Bad-a for Business. Bad-a for the Consumer. Bad-a for Nokia.
Hey everybody! It’s that time again! Time for another new-fangled phone operating system!
What’s that you say? You thought we had enough with the iPhone, Android, the Pre’s webOS, Blackberry, Symbian and Windows Mobile? Not so fast! There’s still room for more industry fragmentation! This time, Samsung, Korea’s leading manufacturer of dishwashers and air conditioners (oh, sure, they make TVs and phones too) is getting into the OS space. I can almost hear your collective nod of agreement. This is going to be good!
Bada, Samsung’s new OS (named for the Korean word for ‘ocean’) was released as:
“This new addition to Samsung’s mobile ecosystem enables developers to create applications for millions of new Samsung mobile phones, and consumers to enjoy a fun and diverse mobile experience.(emphasis added)”
An “open” platform for a closed device list. Unless your name’s Apple, I doubt the development community will come a’running.
So, what does this mean to you, the eager content provider? Should you look to unleash the next cool (first cool?) Bada app for the bada store? You gotta be the first! You gotta be the best! Bada me, baby!!
Don’t. Stop. Enough’s enough.
With the deluge of new operating systems flooding the phone market place today, what we’re ending up with is a huge distraction and expensive proposition for content developers and application developers. Developing an app for each new phone OS, to showcase the OS’s bells and whistles, becomes exceedingly expensive. With very little code sharing with other platforms, developing apps for each new platform is a constant struggle. You have two options, leverage a “middleware” cross-platform app development package, which will surely leave you with a set of mediocre, “least common denominator” apps, or spend a fortune learning each new framework and writing new apps for this and other new platforms. Bada is bada for business.
What about the end user? Isn’t choice good? Well, yes and no. Due to Samsung’s strong relationships with the carriers, we will certainly see at least a few Bada phones on the market. And the consumer, not knowing any better, will come running to the shiny, new (and most likely) extremely cheap “smartphone”. This user will then be able to explore the empty app store, then gawk over their friend’s iPhone or Android app. Oh, the apps will come! Isn’t that right Palm Pre? Um, maybe not.
So, how else does this impact the industry? Well, probably the biggest, most direct impact will come to Nokia with its struggling Symbian platform. Samsung already has phones on the Windows Mobile, Android, LiMo (Linux Mobile) and Nokia Symbian platforms. Many think that Samsung will ditch both WinME and Symbian, but due to the strong number of Windows Mobile phones in the Samsung line up, abandoning just Symbian seems more likely. Symbian has a lot to lose with the launch of Bada.
Only time will tell how Samsung will fare in the operating system arena. I can only assume that after playing in the Bada “ocean” for a year or two, Samsung will ditch the effort for a truly open platform, and the benefits of a community eager to write apps and OS improvements for an environment such as Google Android.
Until then, let the hype build while we prepare for the looming disappointment.
Bada, Samsung, Mobile Technology, Mobile OS, Mobile Operating Systems