What is BADA?
Its Mobile operating system designed for Smart Phones by Samsung Electronics. The name ‚bada which means ocean in Korean, was chosen to convey the limitless variety of potential applications which can be created using the new platform. It is one of the most developer-friendly environments available, particularly in the area of applications using Web services. Samsung bada also represents the fresh challenges and opportunities available to developers, as well as the entertainment which consumers will enjoy once the new platform is open.
Behind the bar
Samsung did a survey of consumers mobile software demands. Results were found to be extremely encouraging for mobile application developers. This was identified as a great opportunity for new development. Even with the current feature set provided by the smart phones available in market, 42% of the current smart phone users surveyed would pay to download applications, if they could.
This illustrates the scale of the potential revenues available for developers by extending the market of downloadable application for smart phones.
As of now, Apple, RIM (Research In Motion – BlackBerry) and Google dominate the Smart Phone OS and Mobile Application Market. Samsung which is the second largest manufacturer of mobile phones also want the pie of this lucrative high end mobile application market. Recent statistics available show that smart phones will account for 16% of cell phone market this year, which makes more room for Samsung in this sector.
Through the launch of Bada Samsung wants to help the developers who want to
capitalize on the market opportunity. The aim of Bada platform is to make smart phone features accessible to everyone, so that developers can reach larger audiences and the variety and creativity of apps can be enjoyed by many. They want consumers to have a fun and diverse mobile experience that really adds value to their lives, by providing them with high-quality application and mobile services.
Key Features
Extensible core functions
A call dialer, messaging and address book, which Bada applications can freely use. Bada will give developer the chance to access phones’ accelerometers, tilt, weather, proximity and activity sensors, so they can build apps that respond to tilting the phone.
Smart phones for everyone
More and more people want the rich and connected application-experiences that are currently only available for smart phone consumers. Samsung has developed bada to make these exclusive smart phone experiences available to everyone
Tools
The new UI tool includes the ability to embed the AdobeFlashPlayer and WebKit Internet Browser directly into native Bada applications. Also Bada map Control can be used for mapping in applications. Also Eclipse and GNU tool-chain can be used as IDE for development purpose.
Feature-rich developer platform
The new OS will deliver simple, instinctive, and innovative visual design using Next Generation UI Framework. Bada supports motion sensor and face detection. Also it provides mechanism to develop sensor based and context-aware applications.
Service Oriented Features
Developers can create service-centric applications like social networking applications for managing user profiles, location applications for mapping etc.
And all the bada handsets will have some common features:
- 3G / Wi-Fi
- GPS / Motion Sensor
- WGVGA/WVGA screen
- Multipoint touch
Bada supports third party services like Twitter and Facebook through its APIs.
Architecture
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- Bada Architecture Stack
The Architecture is made up of four layers
I. Kernel Layer
This is based on real-time Operating Sysstem or Linux kernel based depending on hardware configuration. Speculation is that it can be linux based system
II.Device Layer
This provides the core functions of a device platform that are provided by OS, such as graphics and multimedia, and communication components.
III. Service Layer
Service-centric functions that are provided by application engine like messaging and contact management.
IV. Framework Layer
Open API framework that consist of an application framework and functions exported by underlying layers. One can create innovative application on Bada using C++
Bada / Android
Android mobile phone industry has gradually becoming center of attraction. Since Android supports java which has big community support. HTC, Motorola, Sony Ericsson has now adopted Android platform in their newly launched handsets.
Where as Bada is proprietary of Samsung so the Bada will be inbuilt in Samsung smart phones but there are less chances of adaptation of Bada by other Mobile Manufacturers as it is direct threat to them. However Samsung is the second largest mobile manufacturer. This will increase the chances of success of Bada. Also the Games developers CAPCOM, EA Mobile, and Gameloft are supporting Bada.
To Get Started
To get started with Bada application development install SDK and IDE. After registration one needs to become partner to download SDK and IDE. it can be downloaded from here
If you want to try your hand with Bada Platform then Bada Phone will arrive in the first half of 2010. So you have enough time to develop and release any app for Bada.
