Rating: Pitched as an affordable iPhone
Samsung’s proprietary mobile OS, bada, become a reality with the launch of the Wave. Priced at around € 330, this handset will be pitched as an affordable alternative to the iPhone in a £6 million advertising campaign.
Although bada was painted originally as an OS for the low end, the Wave is actually a mid-to-high end phone. For starters it features a high def screen – what Samsung claims is “The world’s first Super AMOLED display”. It also features a 5 megapixel camera and a 1GHz processor.
Central to Samsung strategy is the fact that the Wave will hook into Samsung’s existing mobile applications store – a facility which should be available in over 50 countries by Q1 2011.
Significantly, the Wave features the latest version of Samsung’s own UI – TouchWiz 3.0. GoMo News wonders how well that will go down with Vodafone which made TouchWiz an essential part of its Vodafone 360 platform with the H1 and M1.
Defending its position as the world’s Number Two handset vendor, Samsung said at the current MWC show that it is showing its first Android handset the Samsung Beam, which is also known as the Samsung i8520 ‘Halo’.
Samsung's Android phone
There were rumours of a new Windows Mobile handset and a Limo phone, too but no hints of a new Symbian phone.
The Wave is expected to highlight Samsung’s attempt to break into the social networking through bada with a new ‘Social hub’ facility which promises consumers a “life-changing experience”, no less.
While the first game ported to the bada platform has been announced by Polish developer, Gamelion, – Furry Legends, Samsung engineer, Eric Yoon was quoted as saying, “By the end of this year we expect to see a lot of bada devices, it will be very competitive and the ecosystem will grow and grow.”
