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Samsung Electronics isn’t buying MeeGo, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t designs on its own mobile OS.
Samsung’s Bada operating system for cell phones and smartphones may be relatively unknown in the United States, especially since Samsung has become one of Android’s most influential advocates. However, Samsung’s plans to open the OS to developers by 2012–according to The Wall Street Journal–hints at its intentions to bring Bada more into the mainstream market.
Now in version 2, Bada devices include the Samsung Wave series, including the original Wave that CNET reviewed in 2010.
Here’s how the scenario could play out. Developers help Samsung grow Bada (which means “ocean” or “sea” in Korean) into a more robust operating system that Samsung can sell worldwide to help differentiate its smartphones from Google’s Android OS. In addition, Samsung could use a stronger Bada to power its line of Smart TVs, in addition to other mobile devices, such as tablets.
Yes, pumping resources into Bada would hedge Samsung’s bets on Android, especially in the wake of Google’s Motorola buyout. Motorola is now poised to receive new Android features and other goodies first, leaving partner manufacturers such as HTC and Samsung facing the fact that they have to differentiate or possibly trail behind.
Even HTC, which has some eggs in the Windows Phone basket, has admitted to being open to owning its own mobile OS.
Yet as struggling Research In Motion knows with its BlackBerry OS, as Palm and Hewlett-Packard learned the hard way with WebOS, and as Nokia learned with its Linux-based MeeGo, selling and maintaining a successful, engaging, and rapidly evolving OS is easier said than done. We cautioned HTC not to purchase an unproven mobile OS; Samsung should tread carefully with its OS business.
