Samsung Merging Its Bada OS With Intel-Backed Tizen Project

Samsung said it is working on merging its homegrown “bada” smartphone operating system with Tizen, an operating system project the company is conducting with chipmaker Intel.

Samsung is merging its bada smartphone operating system (shown here) with the Tizen open-source OS it is creating with Intel.

“We have an effort that will merge bada and Tizen,” said Tae-Jin Kang, Senior Vice President of Samsung’s Contents Planning Team in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Kang said he didn’t know when the work would be complete but that it was already underway.

When the integration is finished, Tizen will support mobile applications written with bada’s SDK (software development kit). That support will include backwards compatibility for previously published bada apps.

Post-integration, bada and Tizen developers will be given the same software tools (SDKs and APIs), said Kang. The idea is that if developers know how to program in bada, they will understand how to make Tizen apps, too.

Kang’s remarks are of interest because industry observers have long wondered how the Korean tech giant will juggle its many operating systems. Samsung supports at least four mobile operating systems and has at least two different TV operating systems.

There has also been a lot of industry speculation about the value Samsung attaches to bada and the reason Samsung got involved in Tizen, an industry consortium that is producing an open-source operating system. The Tizen project, which incorporates some technology from Intel’s former MeeGo project with Nokia, kicked off in Sept. 2011.

Samsung uses Google‘s Android platform for its highest-end smartphones and tablets. Samsung also produces several phones that run on Microsoft‘s Window Phone OS.

Samsung has found ways to effectively marshal these outside operating systems — the company is the biggest provider of smartphones globally and the second-largest maker of cellphones overall. But focusing on its own OS would give Samsung more control over its devices and more opportunity to differentiate its products from its competitors’.

Since its 2010 launch, bada (the name means “ocean” in Korean) has found surprising traction, especially given the fact that is only available in certain (non-U.S.) markets. In 2011, bada phones made up about 2% of the global smartphone market — greater than the share held by Microsoft’s Windows Phone.

By merging bada and Tizen, Samsung hopes to tap into the existing bada community, including thousands of bada app developers.

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Samsung Spain

We inform that Samsung terminals family Bada Wave 2.0 will be updated throughout the first quarter of 2012. As soon as we confirm we will be communicating to you the terminals and operators with whom will the updates. A greeting.

Watch out for Wave 2.0 and Wave II

Unfortunately we have bad news for you. Contrary to what we were hoping not to make available in Italy Mind 2.0 by the end of the year. As you know the difference between Bada Bada 1.x and 2.0 relate to different aspects of the terminal: user interface, applications, services and performance. These elements were in fact deeply revised to offer, with the new version of the operating system, an innovative and powerful user experience.

Having Bada 2.0 natively, Wave III Wave Y and Wave M offer since their first release, all the benefits of Mind 2.0. Otherwise, to Wave and Wave II, we must make a further reflection. Although these models support the Bada 2.0 update, we must ensure that once the terminal date Bada 2.0 can continue to have and use all your content and applications.

Our Research and Development department is still working to ensure this step, which is studied in detail to avoid any compatibility problems. To date, we expect that this process ends in the coming weeks and that the upgrade to 2.0 for Bada Wave and Wave II can not therefore be available before March-April 2012.

We at Samsung Italy, together with our headquarters in Research and Development department we are doing our best not to disappoint you and try to anticipate the release of. However, our primary objective must be to provide a stable and functional operating system that meets the quality standards to which we have become accustomed. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your understanding.