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Samsung has announced the availability of the Bada 2.0 Software Development Kit, an application development tool for Samsung’s mobile platform.
Bada 2.0 is expected to be a catalyst in expanding the global distribution of Bada smartphones, which have already received significant global sales, the company said in a press release.
Bada 2.0 supports HTML5 and improved Flash functions to deliver enhanced usability and Web experience, the company said. And by supporting the Wholesale Applications Community (WAC) 2.0 standard, Samsung is looking to expand the Bada developer community.
Samsung officials said the expansion of the Bada platform is led by the success of the seven existing Samsung Wave devices. The Wave smartphones have been popular in Europe, China and Southeast Asia, where consumers have been attracted to their affordability and functionality. Moreover, the recognizable user-experience and touch interface has helped introduce existing Samsung feature phone users to Smartphone services and application experiences.
“Samsung Bada and our Wave devices continue to succeed around the world, taking advantage of the mobile technology and brand awareness of Samsung’s leadership in the market,” said JK Shin, president and head of Samsung’s Mobile Communications Business, in a statement. “We have brought together our key mobile innovations in Bada 2.0, setting the foundation for it to become a leading mobile platform.”
Unveiled at Mobile World Congress in February 2011, Bada 2.0 includes many new features, including multi-tasking, Wi-Fi Direct, Near Field Communication (NFC) and voice recognition. It also enables smartphone users to experience advanced services such as mobile payment, transport pass-card recharge and file sharing without Internet networking.
“Bada is a significant innovation and a key component in Samsung’s multi-platform strategy; we are committed to investing in its success. We are expanding our developer community and creating a strong ecosystem that benefits both developers and end-users,” Shin added. “Developers have an opportunity to reach a significant customer base with new, entertaining and compelling applications while consumers will receive an outstanding smartphone experience.”
Also another key feature for developer partners is the introduction of In-app Ads. Using the Ads API, Bada 2.0 developers can easily insert advertisements, creating new revenue opportunities. Samsung has also upgraded its application development environment, providing developers with increased support. An Emulator has been added to foster a development process suitable to the target environment. And tools such as Profiler optimize the device’s performance ensuring that resources like memory and processing power are used to their fullest capacity.
Bada 2.0 SDK can be downloaded from the Bada developer site. Samsung has enhanced the ‘Samsung Apps’ retail store and expanded availability to 121 countries. With this 2.0 version, more differentiated functions will be offered from Samsung Apps, including new purchasing options and recommendations. Samsung Apps has been a popular destination since the launch of the Samsung Wave, the first Bada based smartphone in June 2010. It received 10 million application downloads in just three months and passed the 100 million-mark in March 2011. The store currently houses approximately 40,000 applications.