Bada (stylized as bada; Korean: 바다) is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Samsung Electronics for devices such as mid- to high-end smartphones[3] and tablet computers. The name is derived from "바다 (bada)", meaning "ocean" or "sea" in Korean. All phones running Bada were branded with the name Wave, unlike Samsung's Android devices which are branded as Galaxy.[citation needed]
To foster adoption of Bada, Samsung reportedly considered releasing the source code under an open-source license, and expanding device support to include Smart TVs.[4] In June 2012 Samsung announced its intention to merge Bada into the Tizen project,[5][6] while still using it in parallel with Google's Android OS and Microsoft's Windows Phone on its smartphones.
After the announcement of Bada, the Wave S8500, which would eventually turn to be the first Bada-based phone, was first shown to the public at Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona in February 2010. Alongside Bada itself, some applications running on Bada were exhibited, including mobile videogames like Gameloft's Asphalt 5.[11]The Wave S8500 was released in May that year,[12][13] and sold one million handsets over the first four weeks on the market.[14]
According to Samsung, companies such as Twitter, EA, Capcom, Gameloft and Blockbuster revealed their support for the Bada platform by having arranged development partnerships with Samsung since before the launch, and shared a few insights about their vision for the future of mobile apps and how Bada would play a role in it. These were a showcase of what could be heard in a series of events held across the world during the year 2010, called Developer Days. In addition, it was made public the announcement of an incoming Bada Developer Challenge with a total prize of $2,700,000 (USD) throughout the launch event.[15]In May 2010, Samsung released a beta of their Bada software development kit (SDK), making it available to the general public as it had done with partners the previous December, to entice potential developers of applications for this platform.[16]In August 2010, Samsung released version 1.0 of the Bada SDK. A year later, in August 2011, version 2.0 of the Bada SDK was released.[citation needed]
The Samsung S8500 Wave was launched with version 1.0 of the Bada operating system. Samsung soon released version 1.0.2, which included minor fixes for European users.[17] Version 1.2 was released with the Samsung S8530 Wave II phone.[18] The alpha-version of Bada 2.0 was introduced on 15 February 2011, with the Samsung S8530 Wave II handset.
With the release of the Samsung Wave, Samsung opened an international application store, Samsung Apps, for the Bada platform.[19] It had over 2,400 applications and was also available for Android and Samsung feature phones.[20]
Bada was defined by Samsung as not an operating system itself but a platform with a kernel configurable architecture, which allowed using either a proprietary real-time operating system hybrid (RTOS) kernel or the Linux kernel.[2] According to copyrights displayed by Samsung Wave S8500, it used code from FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD.
Bada provided various UI controls to developers, and a web browser control based on the open-source WebKit, and featured Adobe Flash, supporting Flash versions 9 to 11 (Flash Lite 4 with ActionScript 3.0 support) in Bada 2.0. Both of the latter could be embedded inside native Bada applications. It supported the OpenGL ES 2.0 3D graphics API and offered interactive mapping with point of interest (POI) features, which could also be embedded inside native applications.[23] It supported pinch-to-zoom, tabbed browsing and cut, copy, and paste features.[24]
Bada's interaction methods that could be incorporated into applications included sensors such as motion sensing, vibration control, face detection, accelerometer, magnetometer, tilt, Global Positioning System (GPS), and multi-touch.[16]
Native applications were developed in C++ with the Bada SDK, and the Eclipse based integrated development environment (IDE). GNU-based tool chains were used for building and debugging applications. The IDE also contained a drag and drop application for designing application interfaces, and an emulator for apps.
The chart below show global sales of Bada smartphones from the second quarter of 2010 through the second quarter of 2013.[citation needed] Canalys, a technology market analysis company, estimated that Samsung shipped 3.5 million phones running Bada in Q1 of 2011.[31] This rose to 4.5 million phones in Q2 of 2011.[32]
"Response to Samsung Apps has been tremendous in our target markets, and a lot of it is because of the popularity of utility and entertainment apps," said Kanghyun Kwon, vice president, media solutions center, Samsung Electronics.
"The days of using a phone just for talking are long gone - functionality is key now. With Samsung Apps, we aim to fill the need for functionality and practical apps for all of our existing Samsung customers, as well as attract new customers by adding more unique applications. We're excited with what the future holds for Samsung Apps."
The expansion of the bada platform is led by the success of the seven existing Samsung Wave devices. The Wave smartphones have proven extremely popular in Europe, China and Southeast Asia, where consumers have been attracted to their affordability and functionality; the recognizable user-experience and touch interface has helped introduce existing Samsung feature phone users to Smartphone services and application experiences.
In addition, considering the increased use of web using smartphones, bada 2.0 supports HTML5 and improved Flash functions thus offering enhanced usability and web experience. By supporting standard WAC 2.0, bada aims to greatly expand its developer community
*All functionality, features, specifications and other product information provided in this document including, but not limited to, the benefits, design, pricing, components, performance, availability, and capabilities of the product are subject to change without notice or obligation.
About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2010 consolidated sales of US$135.8 billion. Employing approximately 190,500 people in 206 offices across 68 countries, the company consists of nine independently operated business units: Visual Display, Mobile Communications, Telecommunication Systems, Digital Appliances, IT Solutions, Digital Imaging, Memory, System LSI and LCD. Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, semiconductor chips, mobile phones and TFT-LCDs. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com.