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Will Samsung's Bada affect Android?

Samsung will wean itself from Windows Mobile to focus on Bada and Android. But could Android be in danger as well?

Scott Webster headshot
Scott Webster
2 min read

With the announcement of its new Bada operating system, Samsung promises to shake up the mobile OS market in the next few years.

According to a Seoul-based brokerage firm, the cell phone giant plans to gradually abandon its use of Microsoft Windows Mobile OS and increase the number of devices running Android and Bada.

While Windows Mobile accounted for nearly 90 percent of Samsung' smart phone line in 2008, it's estimated to drop to 50 percent in 2010 and 20 percent in 2011. This move echoes a recent HTC decision to devote over half of their 2010 product line to Android.

Though the real details of Bada have yet to emerge, Samsung is positioning it as an open platform that is "simple for developers to use, offers a groundbreaking user interface and can be transferred into a sophisticated and attractive UI design for developers." Sounds a bit like Android, doesn't it?

Of course, that leads us to ask whether Android is just a stop on the way to a total Bada handset line. Though anything can happen, we'd say that the relationship between Android and Bada will stay strong and healthy for quite some time. Samsung is already integrating its exclusive TouchWiz interface into smartphones, from the Windows Mobile Omnia II to the upcoming Android Behold II, so there's no reason to believe that Bada and Android couldn't play nice together in a similar manner.

What's more, the company is also a founding member of the LiMo Foundation. If anything, Bada just reaffirms Samsung's belief in the idea of "open" for mobile platforms. And with the mobile OS market already crowded with the likes of Apple, RIM, Windows Mobile, and Palm, there's little reason to think that Samsung would focus solely on its own OS.