SEOUL, South Korea - Having received lukewarm response to its smartphones until now, electronics giant Samsung has officially announced a new mobile platform, Bada, which in Korean means "ocean" and refers to the endless possibilities of its mobile OS.

Samsung's recent smartphones Samsung Galaxy in the Android segment, and Samsung Omnia i8910HD in the Symbian S60 5th-edition platform have been market disasters, even with their above-par hardware specifications; the caveats being the manufacturers' incapability in building an ecosystem of their own around these platforms. While the Android ecosystem is open to a number of manufacturers, the S60's Ovi ecosystem is largely targeted towards Nokia devices, thereby leaving other manufacturers in the dark. With their smartphone segment going nowhere, it was high time Samsung took some initiatives to build an ecosystem around its mobile devices, and the latest announcement of its new platform complements the Samsung Application Store, launched earlier this year.

Samsung Bada will be officially launched in December this year, when it will be available for developers to create applications for millions of new Samsung devices. The manufacturer has assured developers that its new mobile platform will be one of the most developer-friendly environments, particularly in the genre of applications using Web services. Further, Samsung will also be working in close quarters with service operators by providing them with an easy-to-integrate platform for customizing their services to the end-users.

Dr Hosoo Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of Media Solution Center at Samsung Electronics said that "by opening Samsung’s mobile platforms we will be able to provide rich mobile experiences on an increasing number of accessible smartphones." He added, “Bada will be Samsung’s landmark, iconic new platform that brings an unprecedented opportunity for operators, developers and Samsung mobile phone users around the world."

Samsung will also hosting an official launch event for their new mobile platform in London, UK in December on the eve of which it will  be releasing the software development kit (SDK) of Bada to developers worldwide.