MacDailyNews Take: Uh, yeah, okay. Whatever.
Hurst continues, “The Korean manufacturer is currently the world’s second largest producer of mobile phones – behind Nokia – but wants a larger share of the rapidly expanding smartphone market, which is dominated by Apple’s iPhone. When Apple launched its 3G iPhone in 2008, the American computer giant redefined the mobile phone. No longer simply a device for sending texts and making calls – the smartphone incorporated media players, the internet and sparked a trend creating hundreds of thousands of software applications – or apps – written by third party programmers.”
“Significantly, the Wave is the first handset to run Samsung’s new open source operating system (OS) Bada and features an iTunes-style apps store for downloading games, mapping, eBooks and lifestyle applications,” Hurst reports. “Bada, which means ocean in Korean, is the latest mobile phone OS to be launched in an increasingly congested market… Google’s Android, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, Blackberry’s RIM and the class leading open-source Symbian OS.”
MacDailyNews Take: Add Microsoft’s “Windows Phone 7 Series” and Nokia+Intel’s “MeeGo” to the pile. And the only class Symbian could lead is Special Ed.
Hurst continues, “Because the Wave is expected to undercut the iPhone’s retail price, industry experts reckon the new pretender could steal a march on Apple. Ernest Doku, mobile phone guru at Omio.com, said: ‘Samsung’s Bada OS brings smartphone technology to the masses, enabling entry level handsets to offer apps, multimedia and a touchscreen experience comparable to high end devices. He added: ‘With handsets like the Wave, Samsung is providing an affordable alternative to the traditional smartphone, offering what consumers have come to expect in a phone – browsing, social networking support and an app store – at a fraction of the price.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Listen, Ernie, that line of “thinking” only offered a whiff of plausibility when the iPhone retailed for US$599. It fails utterly with Apple having had $99 models on the market for quite some time now, Mr. Guru. Sheesh.
Hurst continues, “The handset arrives in the UK in April. No official price has been announced.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: YAMOS. Every time a new mobile OS is announced an iPhone gets its wings. Once again: Stuffing the marketplace full of superfluity only benefits Apple.
Sounds bad(a).
Magic Word = ‘average’
How much is Microsoft paying Samsung? Who can hear “bada” without thinking “bing”?
This does feel a lot like the early days of personal computers; who remembers the Timex Sinclair, or the Commodore PET, or the Coleco Adam?
Talk about the island of misfit toys.
What kind of lame-ass focus group came up with the name “bada”? Seriously, it’s begging to be ridiculed.
Bada? As in…..Bada Boom!
I think these people need to learn a new catchphrase:
“It’s the ecosystem, stupid.”
Until they can somehow duplicate that, they’re not going to catch Apple.
Did you forget to add Palm’s WebOS?
I guess this is how you beat Apple. Undercut the price, subsidize it with funds from a monopoly fed company, superficial UI that copies the real innovator and fool users into thinking its just like that one…. good plan
No, it’s Bada Bing! Can’t you all see the conspiracy here?
Arguably, if you have Bada and you use Bing, then Boom!
Or is that BadA, for Bad As*?
“Samsung launches ‘a bad’ mobile operating system”
There, fixed – those with dyslexia may not even notice.
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I can already hear Apple Haters now.
“Dude, your new Wave phone is Bada-ass!
Magic Word: figure
As in, go …
Hi Bada, Welcome to the “Others” category in the market share.
from your friends:
“The Windows Mo and Windows 7 series phones”
What kind of lame-ass focus group came up with the name “iPad”? Seriously, it’s begging to be ridiculed.
btw bada is a korean word for ocean, korean company, korean name, its not there fault some americans are retarded
on the other hand apple has no excuse for the name iPad
Isn’t it:
Bada Bing
Bada Boom
Interesting progression – predictive of another bomb?
Now we got:
IPhone OS
Bada
Windows 7 Phone
Palm OS
MeeGo
Blackberry
Android
We alone didn’t forget Palm OS, Rob. The world did.
Ummm, if this is a multimedia phone, it’ll require a sizeable data plan. Thus the initial cost of the phone ($0 – $200) is utterly inconsequential over the life of the contract.
If Samsung’s only play is to say their hardware is being given away for next to nothing, they’ll only get stupid customers. Good for them!
And remember too that they will be loaded onto “iPhone Killer” phones too.
It is to laugh.
Swing Bada Bada… And strikes out!
Apple as “American computer giant”?
As much as I admire Apple, that’s the first time I’ve ever heard that from the mainstream press.
Maybe that’s all he got right?
Yes, Bada means ocean in Korean. That’s fine. They are going from 90% WinMo smartphones last year, to 50% this year, and 20% in a couple years, and Bada and Android will fill the WinMo void. That’s good too.
BTW, bada means Big 8 in Chinese.
“class leading open-source Symbian OS”
Uh, wha? Does that just mean that there are more Nokia phones that claim some kind of Symbian OS out there than other OSes? Class leading at what? Submenus?
Ernest Doku? Who knew the Count’s first name was Ernest?!?
I think Bada just means “bad” name. Who cares what it means in Korean… Only two nations speak Korean as their primary language, and one of them isn’t buying any smart phones.
I haven’t tried any of these so-called iPhone killers; I’ve been too content with my iPhone to bother. But the time will come when I need a new phone, so it’s worthwhile to see what others are coming up with. What I want to know is how all these companies are circumventing those 200 patents that Apple supposed covered the iPhone with. Even the trademarked “multi-touch” is being used by everyone. What gives Apple Legal? Was all that talk a bunch of smoke, or are there really this many ways to skin the same cat?
@Spark-
Apple made that mistake back in the day vs the other computer makers. They fought to kill off all of their look and feel rip-off competitors while MS sat there with a legal contract allowing them to copy. This only helped MS.
Now, there’s a similar situation in phones, although nobody has the rights to copy. What Apple learned, though, was to let their competitors kill each other off without wasting their own resources and acknowledging their competition. If it really comes down to someone really being able to compete while stealing Apple’s IP, I bet they’ll deal with it.
There’s more. If you recall, in his original presentation to announce the iPhone, Steve Jobs pointedly commented that the new device embodied over 200 new patents, “…and we intend to defend them.”
When Steve Jobs makes a point like that with emphasis, it should not be ignored. Unlike the example of where John Scully blew it in signing a bad licensing agreement with Microsoft, Apple appears to have learned from that mistake, and put itself into a highly defensible position. Palm tried to copy some elements of the iPhone’s interface, and backed off. So has Google.
As for Bada, add it to the list of failed iPhone killers. It will probably do well in Samsung’s native South Korea, but their strategy likely won’t work as well worldwide. Why? Because Bada joins a list of other phone operating systems all trying to compete against the iPhone. Not all of them will make it. Further, Samsung is not known for developing operating systems.
It’s easy to see why a company like Samsung would want to try to emulate Apple. But being so late to the party, when so many consumers have moved to the Apple sphere, to try to launch an app store without a good strategy for attracting developers, and not really having deals in place with sources of content (movies, TV, music, books, etc.) will make them less successful in cutting deals. It’s not enough to say that you have an app store – why should a developer even invest in working on yet another platform? What will they have to pay out in licensing fees? And does Samsung have any infrastructure set up for working with developers?
Then there is the issue of skating to where the puck is, not where it will be. Apple has only shown us hardware in the past few months, but not played its hand with its OS version 4, with how this will all relate to the iPad, or announced why the company is building a massive data center in Tennessee. My hunch is that Apple saw this coming. And as I write this, the company is well on its way to skating to where the puck will be.
Without a bigger strategy than just a phone and an unproven OS, Samsung faces the same challenges as its other competitors do against Apple.