Samsung has revealed details of bada 2.0, the latest version of its mobile phone operating system and the availability of the Software Development Kit (SDK) to app developers.
Bada is Samsung’s propriety user interface that debuted in the UK with the Samsung Wave and Samsung Wave 2 and the Korean company has now confirmed three new Wave handsets will be available: ‘later this year’, encompassing premium and entry-level devices.
New features of Bada 2.0 include: multitasking, WiFi Direct, NFC and voice recognition. Flash and HTML5 support has been improved too, enhancing web performance.
Samsung Apps is getting a boost too, expanding to 121 countries and bada 2.0 will include new purchasing options and recommendations. Crucially developers can now add in-app adverts.
Despite creating WP7 and Android handsets, it’s clear Samsung is firmly committed to the OS. Simon Stanford from Samsung UK and Ireland said: “Whilst we will continue to work with partners including Google and Microsoft, bada will be a big focus for us in the future as we work to make it a leading mobile platform.”
The Wave II was a good handset, combining a full touchscreen, great build and Samsung Apps with a simple user interface, but it was very much a mid-range handset, without the features and customisation to match rivals. So it will be very interesting to see what a premium bada 2.0 handset looks like, especially following the huge success of its high-end Android smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S2.
There are no further details of phone names or release dates, but the bada 2.0 SDK can be downloaded from the bada developer site
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