Samsung Wave brings Bada to Europe today, everyone else told to wait
By Darren Murph 
posted May 24th 2010 1:55AM
posted May 24th 2010 1:55AM
Samsung Wave, First Bada Smartphone Hits The Market
Seoul (Korea Newswire) May 24, 2010 -- Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., a leading mobile phone provider, today announced the commercial availability of the Samsung Wave (Model: S8500) in European countries, including Germany, France and the UK. Unveiled at Mobile World Congress 2010, the Wave is the first smartphone based on Samsung's new, open smartphone platform, bada, and is the cornerstone of the company's commitment to 'smartphone democratization.'
With the launch of the Wave, Samsung is actively constructing a total eco-system around bada platform including Samsung Apps. Samsung Apps will be available in 80 countries when the Wave launches, and will increase the premium content and applications pool through collaboration with partner companies and developers.
The availability of the Samsung bada SDK (Software Development Kit) will ensure that consumers can experience a steady stream of new applications that support bada platfrom. The beta version of the SDK was recently made available to applications developers, and the complete bada SDK 1.0.0 will be available for download shortly.
"The Samsung Wave represents our strategy to deliver rich, exciting smartphone experiences to everyone," said JK Shin, President and head of the Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics. "This launch will make our platform vision a reality and consumers, developers and operators will experience the freedom of choice that bada enables."
The Samsung Wave will expand its availability from European countries to Southeast Asia, China, the Middle East and Africa, and Latin America.
Samsung Apps: Discover, Experience, Enhance
Samsung Apps, an integrated application store accessible from the device and online, allows Wave users to simply and easily download an abundance of applications. Featuring a wealth of games, navigation, social networking, e-book, health and lifestyle applications, Samsung Apps gives users instant access to a wide range of mobile experiences.
Already launched in the UK, France, Italy, Singapore, Germany, Brazil and China for Windows Mobile or Symbian based phones, Samsung Apps will accelerate market expansion driven by bada platform to more than 100 carriers in 80 countries all over the world. Participating application providers include The Associated Press, Electronic Arts, Facebook, Gameloft, Layar, Myspace, Namco Bandai, Twitter, Universal Pictures International, WeatherBug, ZAGAT and many others.Including well-known applications such as Need for Speed Shift (EA), Tower Bloxx(Digital Chocolate), Weather Bug(WeatherBug), and ZAGAT TO GO(Handmark),
a multitude of useful, productive and entertaining applications will be offered at Samsung Apps.
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.(Gameloft), which is famous console game based on Tom Clancy's novels, is futuristic, innovative and great use of device features. It will enhance users' experience with 13 diverse missions, 26 licensed plane models and full 3D environment.
An award-winning multimedia news portal, AP Mobile (The Associated Press), provides anytime access to international, national, and local news to users. AP's own worldwide coverage of breaking news, sports, entertainment, politics and business as well as local news from more than 1,000 AP members and third-party sources will benefit Samsung Apps users.
bada Platform – the Smart Choice
Samsung's bada platform will drive the democratization of the smartphone era and deliver a smartphone for every lifestyle. The bada is the secret behind the Samsung Wave and enables applications to fully utilize the powerful hardware by providing various APIs for interactivity including UI elements, 3D Graphics, Flash, multipoint-touch, sensors and motion support. In addition, service-oriented features such as social network integration, LBS (location-based service) and in-application-purchase, allow users to experience a variety of applications and content.
Developers can write applications with the bada SDK (Software Development Kit). The bada SDK provides a complete set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) as well as IDE (Integrated Development Environment), simulator, UI builder, and other useful tools and helpful sample applications and documents. This content will facilitate the development of applications for not just the Samsung Wave, but all other mobile phones that adopt bada as their platform of choice. Applications developed with the bada SDK can be sold through 'Samsung Apps', Samsung's application store.
To motivate developers, 'bada Developer Challenge', the biggest application contest in 2010, started to global developers. Samsung has set aside a prize pot totaling $ 2,700,000 for this event. 300 developers survived at the first round will receive Samsung Wave and the contest winner will receive $300,000.
Samsung also plans to hold a series of bada Developer Days in more than 20 countries to encourage bada application development and assist relevant developers and their communities. bada Developers Day is open to any developers and the registration is free. Samsung will demonstrate programming samples that will showcase a variety of bada platform functions configured for specific technologies and applications.
"Samsung is fully committed to the success of the bada platform. Samsung bada will significantly expand the smartphone market, which will create an ocean of opportunity for developers," added by Dr. Hosoo Lee, executive vice president and head of the Media Solution Center.
The SDK can be downloaded for free from the "bada Developers" site (http://developer.bada.com). Further details on the 'bada Developer Challenge' and 'bada Developer Day' are also available here.
Social Hub and TouchWiz 3.0
Social Hub allows you to efficiently manage your communication needs by providing intuitive and unified access to emails, IMs and Social Networking Sites (SNS). It is powered by 'Push' technology, ensuring a real time delivery of emails, IMs, calendar events and SNS updates. The benefits of Social Hub are further enhanced by the Wave's TouchWiz 3.0 UI, delivering superb user experience. Availability of Social Hub can be decided by market demands.
For those who love music, the device home-page can be turned into an intuitive media player; while for those who take and share a lot of photos, the page can be customized to feature favorite images. Users will also benefit from Quick Panel, a way of prioritizing and aggregating apps into one screen for instant access.
With its eye-catching screen, Samsung's latest TouchWiz 3.0 user interface gives a tactile, intuitive user experience, and includes iconic new features such as motion UI, Smart Unlock and a customizable widget screen.
Screen, Speed, Performance and Beauty
With the Samsung Wave, seeing really is believing as it features the world's first Super AMOLED display; delivering an unrivalled screen experience on a smartphone. The Super AMOLED offers a much brighter, clearer, and less reflective viewing experience. With a free viewing angle and super fast response enabled by this proven technology, the Samsung Wave display provides superb image quality for viewing both videos and photos.
The Samsung Wave benefits from a superb 1GHz processor which offers users the best graphic performance available today. Its speed makes the touch screen user interface incredibly responsive and intuitive and, more importantly, means that the 3D and memory-intensive graphic and video performance is unsurpassed.
The Samsung Wave is also one of the most attractive devices with a seamless, streamlined body that has no parting or harsh lines. A beautiful and strong tempered glass display perfectly complements and enhances the vividness of the Super AMOLED display. Furthermore, with anti-smudge technology, those greasy thumb prints are a thing of the past.
Multi-codec support for DivX, Xvid, MP4 and WMV, and support for virtual 5.1 surround sound delivery transforms the device into a personal entertainment system. HD video (720p) decoding and recording capabilities make the Samsung Wave an outstanding device for capturing, sharing and viewing video.
The Samsung Wave is the first handset in the world that incorporates the Bluetooth® 3.0 and WiFi 802.11n standards.
nice hardware, but I dont think that world is ready for another OS
@nk Bada is way too similar to the iPhone OS to ever succeed, i dont think anyone else could pull off something so... simple/boring.
@nk
What they need to do is allow you to dual boot. Then that would be a pretty decent phone.
@BuryTheCastle hmm its becoming to complicated...dual boot, 1gh processors...I think that they should cool it down a lil bit and as for Samsung goes they should stick to Symbian/WP7/Android
@nk
i wish they could just stick to android, its just confusing having 9/10 different phone O/S's
plus, there are less apps for each O/S, because who wants to develop the same app for like 10 O/S's?
then again, i am LOVING the dual boot idea
and this phone with a Super AMOLED is definitely an eye catcher, just stick super AMOLEd on a HTC device with some nice droid and sense, boy im in ecstasy just thinking about it!! :P
@nk
Totally agree the world only needs Apple for all the gamers, Andriod for everyone who hates apple :P, Symbian for the people who like swiss army knifes in their pocket, Blackberry os for the business guys. Thats enough why all this meego and bada they will never take off against the established OSs...
@dipesh2301
Why all this? Because Samsung wants to make more money, and that will only work if they can offer innovative handsets, which nowadays means not just unique hardware, but unique software.
Samsung is the #2 phone company and #1 electronics company in the world. They aim to be among the top 3 in evey business they enter and usually reach that goal. It's unthinkable that they wouldn't at least try to establish their own smartphone platform. If they fail, they might as well leave that market.
Why is nobody talking about that girl's sexy nipples?
@TinWard that was one of the first things that popped out at me when I saw this pic.
@BuryTheCastle
What would be the point of dual booting? If Android or WP7 was available on this, no would ever use Bada and the OS would die off, a lot quicker than it's about to anyways.
The smartphone market needs to re evaluate its focus if we ever get manufactures encouraging dual booting.
@TinWard
Wow, someone actually beat me to it. I was just about to point out that she has some pointy ass nipples.
@nk
So is Bada its own Os that runs the API's of andorid? Or just a completely new OS? Or is it a skin (think sense ui) on top of android???????
Bada = *yawn*
Super AMOLED = note worthy
@reallynotnick
Hardly think another OS is *yawn* worthy. It's refreshing to see and use something else. Wouldn't it be boring if there were only WP7S, Apple OSX, Android and Symbian?
@Pearl Jam
Symb... huh? Whats that.... ? Honest question..
@Pearl Jam WebOS too, and not really it probably wouldnt be boring
@Pearl Jam You mean less confusing? Yep.
People are already conpletely lost with all the different OSes on phones... every two years you have to completely relearn how to use a cell phone :/
@Wesscoast WOW downranked for sheer stupidity and pretending he didnt know what the number one phone platform (by a massive margin) was
@Wesscoast I bet your mom really taught you how to be honest huh.
@SteveyAyo Symbian is a nice OS, but it really needs a new UI, the one it has atm is a lil ugly and unfortunaly thats the first thing ppl notice...and as far as nokia goes hardware design could use a refresh too, but no1 can deny that its a good os
@SteveyAyo
Yes, my bad - I forgot that.
@nk
Symbian ^3 and ^4 will solve that problem...
@nk average users don't know that you can completely design your own symbian UI and the software is free... its incredible what you can do with it
@Pearl Jam
BADA has fail written all over it.
Samsung have proved time and time again that they simply do not have the resources to provide support when it comes to updates or fixing bugs...and it's going to be even worse now that they have ANOTHER platform to deal with. Sammy phones always have sick hardware (Super AMOLED = really awesome), but the software and support is probably the worst in the entire smartphone industry...not to mention there's not even a final version of the SDK available yet -- there's going to be like NO apps for this whatsoever....and I don't see people jumping up and down over BADA development..
How long before THIS phone is hacked with a new OS? Any bets?
The Bada OS could be quite good.
It's fast. It's got a WebKit browser (like Safari & Chrome). It should also be a bit cheaper than some of the other platforms.
@IT expert Doubt it'll be cheaper than Android. ;)
@r3loaded Well, with MS threatening lawsuits, it actually definitely can be and Samsung doesn't have to hinge on Android's success/legitimacy (though I do think it's probably better that they do hinge on it rather than develop this.
Samsung is trying to market this to niche's that Android doesn't fill, why they don't want to fill those with Android is actually beyond me besides profit potential. If they can actually put this on over 10M phones worldwide then I guess that it is better that they own/operate this new OS, if they fail with it it'll be really easy for 90%+ of the world that was paying attention to tell Samsung "I told you so."
I can see her nipple. I wish she came with the phone!
@hero785
Totally. Look at those puffies... now that's what I call Bada Bing!
@hero785
The comment most unrelated to the article, but instead focused on the model is Highly Rated.
I love Engadget.
@hero785
Yeah she's definitely rockin' a nice set for a girl that skinny. Bandigolo approved.
@Cash9007 nice reference, thats the first thing i thought when i heard bada...the bada bing
anyone wanna xray that picture lol.
This is just a piece of shit, and that's coming from a Korean.
@dreamerkm Whoa WTF dude? Watch your language.
@dreamerkm So you've used Bada, eh? Well, it's essentially the same feel as TouchWizz, perhaps you've used the Galaxy A (I have, in Korea), which is actually different and at this stage better the Galaxy A is definitely better.
If no the pertinent questions above (using Bada), then do you mean POS idea? It's about $ and control, so the verdict has yet to come in there.
gotta love that screen
bada bing, bada BOOM
@annoynimous
bada bind, bada DOOM
OK, since most people seem to not realize this, I'll spell it out simply. Samsung is trying to fill the market where Symbian is in control, cheap smartphones, with a proprietary OS. They are tempted to use the Bada OS in their cheap smartphones (possibly better termed feature phones),and if they do they can make boatloads of money, especially in Korea where more than 30% of their operating profit is generated and where as of today Android has 0 paid apps in the marketplace and Google and Android can't open their game stores without bowing to regulators.
Put this onto 10-30M cell phones a year and Samsung has something that can rake in cash, even if it isn't great for the marketplace as a whole.
the phone is just sick, to alot of people its just another Samsung take at iphone but apart from the obvious
the super slim, Super AMOLED, HD recording Samsung Mass Memory Flagship has gotta feel amazing inhand, this thing will succeed just look at it
@Zylam Galaxy A and Galaxy S have the same screen. Galaxy S will be better at running games and video. All 3 have the super AMOLED.
Galaxy S is lighter and thinner with a bigger screen, I've felt the Galaxy A and expect the Galaxy S to feel better. One thing this has on the Galaxy S is less plastic.
Galaxy S for me, please :D.
@juanvaldez
Yes juanvaldez you're rite the Galaxies and Beam are actually great phones perhaps better, personally won't get a Wave but dont know why it feels like Samsung have alot of love for their Wave, the way they presented it in MWC, kept it away from the Galaxies to keep its limelight the beam was just Samsung's hobby of innovation and will appeal only to a few even though its a super sick phone.
The Galaxy A is sidelined for the budget friendly, the real Samsung Flagship in no doubt the Galaxy S, theres not a single flaw in that phone from Samsung and they know how much effort they put into perfecting it however i just hate that Touch Wiz atop Android, its looks fine for bada but Android, just doesn't feel rite.
But the day the Galaxy S is rooted, every Android phone will feel the shiver straight from the inside.
@Zylam I've read you can turn touchwizz off within the settings, I can't confirm myself. That said, it's still kinda bad to have on their because it'll definitely delay any Android updates that'd come out for it (I'm taking the leap of faith that Samsung will better support smartphones because their growth and marketshare will go into tailspin if they don't, eh, I'm probably niave). Personally, I know that their are going to be some decent apps and widgets Sammy is packing, so I'm going to try it with both TouchWizz and without it, I think I can handle the UI and if the widgets are available only with TouchWizz on and I find them valuable (though I'm not a social networker and that seems to be at the core) then I'll stick with the TouchWizz.
As for showcasing the Galaxy S, I'd say in some way you are wrong, they really centered maybe half of their keynote on the Galaxy S. It's just that it hasn't been fully represented that way in the West. The Beam and Wave were announced first, maybe a month or more before. Right now, I'm not sure where you can buy the Galaxy A besides Korea, but I know it's not cheap in Korea (the price unsubsidized is actually more than the iPhone 3GS unsubsidized.)
Samsung previously expected to sell 10M Waves, which probably has something to do with their marketing and promotion of the device, since then new announcements have been made by the competition and the Wave was delayed so I'm not sure how successful they'll be on making that target. But being able to penetrate: China, India and a few other really big countries that need cheaper smartphones will give them plenty of chance to do so.
Samsung software is horrible, just horrible.
Samsung Chairman to Samsung Mobile Division Head:
"Android and iPhone are popular mobile OSes. We could get in on that. We make a lot of phones. Let's make our own OS."
Samsung Mobile Division Head to Head Mobile Software Engineer:
"The Chairman wants to create an OS for our mobile phones. Do it."
Head Mobile Software Engineer to Senior Software Engineer:
"We have to create a new mobile OS."
Senior Software Engineer to Junior Software Engineer:
"We have to create a new mobile OS. Have any good ideas?"
Junior Software Engineer to Senior Software Engineer:
"Well, Android and iPhone are popular. They have icons on grids and apps. We could make is similar to that. Plus, it won't be too different so we won't get fired."
Senior Software Engineer to Head Mobile Software Engineer:
"Let's make some think like Android or the iPhone OS, with apps and widgets and whatnot."
Head Mobile Software Engineer to Samsung Mobile Division Head:
"We're going to create something new and revolutionary. It's going to have apps, widgets and icons."
Samsung Mobile Division Head to Samsung Chairman:
"Sir, we have created a new OS. It's called 'Bada', which shows our Korean pride and it has icons and apps. Best of all, it looks and functions similarly to the other mobile OSes already out there so I won't risk looking foolish, even though it is a product that is damn to fail.
Samsung Chairman:
"I'm sorry, I was busy transferring the money I skim off of every profitable division to my various bank accounts. Mobile OS...what the hell are you talking about?"
...and this is why BADA is going to crash and burn like the horrible idea that it is. I know this isn't really how it worked out, but I have 10 bucks that says it's close.
Korean companies are hesitant to ever do anything revolutionary. They are satisfied with being 2nd or 3rd best.
@LeeBongSmith
Like marrying a white guy like yourself?
@ConceptVBS
What the hell are you talking about?
Only when u'll get 8500 u can write something like "similiar like android, iphone etc"