Samsung, second only to Nokia in handset sales, has taken the wraps off its first smartphone (‘Wave') based on bada, its own mobile operating system (OS). For the uninitiated, bada is Korean for ocean, so there is a certain logic in using the ‘Wave' moniker (which, presumably, is a lot catchier than the Korean word for wave).
The obvious question (to continue the metaphor) is will the new touch-screen device actually make ‘waves'? While Samsung has been promiscuous in its choice of mobile OS platforms so far – it has manufactured smartphones based on Microsoft Windows, Symbian, Android and Linux – it is entering the mobile OS market very late with its solution. With the prospect of limited handset volumes in the near term, bada could struggle to build up a sizeable application developer community anytime soon. That would put bada at a clear disadvantage alongside its more established rivals.
Samsung executives, inevitably, remain upbeat. They point to Wave's high-quality resolution screen (dubbed ‘Super AMOLED') and customisable menu and homepage. JK Shin, head of Samsung's mobile operations, also told Reuters in an interview he was optimistic that bada could be used in cheaper smartphone models to serve emerging markets. "I believe that the smartphone market will grow more than 20 percent every year for a three-year time frame, and the growth rate in emerging markets is much higher than that of advanced countries," he told Reuters
Samsung said it plans to launch five to seven phone models using bada software in 2010, as well as to treble its smartphone shipments this year. The Korean giant has about 20 percent of the global mobile phone market but only about three percent of the smartphone market – it has a lot of catching up to do in this space.
Competition is also heating up in the smartphone space. Sony Ericsson, another struggler in the smartphone segment, announced in Barcelona an expansion of its touchscreen smartphone portfolio from two to five. The new additions include slide-out QWERTY keyboards. More smartphone announcements are sure to come from manufacturers at MWC.