Samsung Merging Its Bada OS With Intel-Backed Tizen Project
Samsung said it is working on merging its homegrown “bada” smartphone operating system with Tizen, an operating system project the company is conducting with chipmaker Intel. — Samsung is merging its bada smartphone operating system …
Context & Ripple Effects
Samsung built Bada as an open mobile OS in 2009 and continued investing in it through a Bada 2.0 SDK and additional Wave phones in 2011. Folding that work into Tizen ends the premise of Bada as a separate Samsung platform effort.
The move also extends the Linux-device collaboration Intel entered with Nokia in 2010 through their shared Linux efforts for smart devices. Samsung brings an existing handset OS and developer program to an Intel-backed project rather than starting a new platform from scratch.
First-order effects
- Samsung’s Bada software and developer effort become part of the Tizen project, concentrating its mobile-platform work on a joint Samsung–Intel initiative.
- Intel gains a partner with an established smartphone OS effort, making Tizen more than a chipmaker-backed platform project.
Second-order effects
- Bada developers and Wave-phone plans face a platform transition toward Tizen, concentrating Samsung’s developer outreach and software maintenance around the merged effort.
- The combined project gives Samsung and Intel a more unified alternative to pursue in mobile software, increasing the importance of attracting device and application support to Tizen.
Third-order effects
- The merger points to mobile operating systems consolidating around shared, Linux-oriented projects as maintaining separate handset platforms becomes harder to justify.
- If Samsung and Intel can carry Bada’s existing work into Tizen, control of the mobile stack shifts from standalone vendor OSs toward alliances that combine device, chip, and software interests.
The trend: Mobile-platform development is moving toward collaborative Linux-based ecosystems that pool vendor software investments rather than sustaining separate proprietary handset OSs.