Samsung Bada OS to Sail Open Source Waters in 2012

Posted 09/20/2011 at 9:44am | by Paul Lilly

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Samsung is so heavily invested in Google's Android ecosystem that you might not even realize the handset maker has its own operating system. It does and it's called Bada, which Samsung launched in November 2010. Now in version 2.0, Samsung has big plans for its Bada platform, including open sourcing the OS.

A report in The Wall Street Journal says Samsung's Bada platform will go open source next year as the handset maker attempts to curb its reliance on Android. It's not that Samsung has suddenly turned sour on Android, there's just so much uncertainty surrounding Google's mobile platform, which has been the subject of numerous lawsuits. Even if you take away all the patent litigation, there's still the question of what Google plans to do with its Motorola acquisition.

Be that as it may, does it make sense to open up Bada to external developers? Neil Mawston, an analyst at Strategy Analytics, told WSJ it's a risky move and that "Nokia failed dismally with Symbian, for example." But it might also be necessary. Quoting statistics from market research firm Gartner, WSJ says Bada holds a 1.9 percent of the smartphone market, compared to Android's 43.4 percent share.

Image Credit: Samsung