Is it Bada or Bust for Samsung?

I think, having only mid-range handsets as target market for Bada OS is not promising. They should develop this for high-end units as well because it’s the high-end unit users that have the more capability of purchasing apps..

bust!

Choice is always good but if Samsung lets Bada stagnate, they’ll have another symbian on their hands.

OTOH, it’ll be an interesting development if Samsung licenses Bada to other dumbphones makers.

Samsung must stick and c0ncentrate to one OS only!

It’s a bust obviously. The sales of Bada phones are extremely low, maybe because it hasn’t penetrated the market yet? Or maybe people are not really interested. Talking about the dev army, it’s just iOS and Android. All other non-popular OS will suffer marketplace fail, then smartphone OS fail.

I pity Samsung for creating Bada and teasing the world how good it is but now is stuck between the iOS and Android war.

PS Bada is a smartphone OS, why bother market it to mid? Dear Samsung, its either a dumbphone or a smartphone!

@ice3d

Extremely low? Samsung was able to sell out 1 million units of the Wave worldwide in 2 months since its launch back in June. And just last month the 1 million sales mark was passed in Europe alone.

People keep on hating on BADA when they don’t even realize Samsung never really intends to have it compete with the likes of the Android and the iOS. It’s just there to help feature phone users transition slowly to a smartphone market.

I’ve used almost all OSes starting with Symbian, Windows Mobile, iOS and previously the Android OS. Now, I’m a proud Wave Owner and I’m contented with the phone, I’m not biased in any way cause I still think the phone’s just a glorified feature phone, but you’d still be surprised how it can take on the iPhone 4 in terms of features and functions and leave it in the dust considering it’s a first generation device.

As far as user base goes, I’m pretty sure that 14 million downloads statistic in the Samsung Apps store wasn’t made by a few Wave owners. The apps are still growing, you don’t expect a 3 month old OS to be able to have the same number of apps tenured OSes currently have.

In the end, BADA is still in it’s infancy, pretty much how crappy the iOS and the Android used to be when they were starting out. It has great potential and if you’ve never used one, how the hell can you say it’s a bust?

@Techfreak:

14 million downloads does not constitute a user base, bro.

btw, BADA was launched last year, so it’s about a year old already but unfortunately, does not enjoy the same industry support as Android, iOS and even WinMo.

I don’t hate BADA and I own and like my Samsung phone but c’mon.. this move was more about Samsung economics than anythings else.. understandable but a little bit douchey move to drop their symbian users like that.

“During the last Bada Developer Seminar with Samsung, they indicated that their Bada OS will be targeted more to their mid-range handsets giving way to Android for the high-end units.”

this is definitely a bust. i was thinking of replacing my arena with the wave but after knowing that the Bada will only be targeted for mid-range handsets, i don’t think samsung is serious with sticking to Bada when the going gets tough.

wow. 2 million units sold in less than 3 months and they call it a bust. i pity u guys for not having tested the wave/bada. it may not be the perfect os but it’s very promising. the interface is very user friendly. not too long ago i owned a windows mobile 6.0 and it was too damn smart for its own good. u have to navigate a slew of commands to get to where u wanna go and u have the feeling that somehow ur not there yet. a true smartphone is one that does not waste too much of ur precious time. and for that, i thank bada for being the smartest o.s. yet.

I agree with techfreak too. i think it is too early to say BADA or bust for the manufacturer.. The OS is very promising, give it some time and we’ll see what happens

@Techfreak: the BADA OS was officially launched December last year (that’s why I said it’s almost a year old). Got the SDK to prove it. Anyway there’s also this link from BADA.COM:

http://www.bada.com/samsung-launches-open-mobile-platform/

@Bokoi:

Some i8910 Omnia owners might disagree with you

like i said the move is UNDERSTANDABLE but not too sure those who have Samsung Symbian phones would be happy with this, i8910 is not a cheap phone and was released only last year.

@Bokoi:

why don’t you ask TechFreak regarding Omnia users, he seems to know a lot of stats on Samsung

samsung dropping symbian is not unexpected, the writings were already on the wall, it’s just surprising how pragmatic it was done

i agree though that symbian still needs a lot of work to catch-up as a touch ui, hope their latest would be able to address a lot of the previous problems/complaints

as for me, i’m going android (2.1/2.2)

@techfreak

i totally agree with your conclusion re: arena vs. the wave. but my point really was that i would rather put my money on an iphone or blackberry than a wave with a halfbaked bada that might not be fully developed if samsung decides to ditch it if they dont get the desired $$$$$$$$$$$$