Samsung Merges Bada With Linux Distro Tizen

Samsung is merging its own platform Bada with Linux distro Tizen, which the manufacturer is developing together with Intel. So says a CEO of the company. This makes Bada a full-fledged mobile operating system for the first time.

The merging of Bada with Tizen should allow existing Bada developers and Bada apps to write software for the Linux distro right away. Eventually the developer tools will also be merged, so say Samsung CEO Tae-Jin Kang in an interview with business magazine Forbes. It is unclear when the integration should be ready.

Samsung has been working with Intel since September on the development of the Linux kernel-based operating system Tizen. Tizen is the successor to MeeGo, the OS that Nokia and Intel were developing together. Samsung would like to present the first smartphone with Tizen next month, the I9500. The letter I indicates that Samsung sees Tizen more as a smartphone than Bada, of which all devices received the prefix S. The I was previously used for high-end devices with Android, such as the I9000 Galaxy S, I9100 Galaxy S II and I9250 Galaxy Nexus. Previously, the I-series has been used for the I8000 Omnia 2 with Windows Mobile, the I8700 Omnia 7 with Windows Phone and the I8910 Omnia HD with Symbian.

The Korean manufacturer unveiled Bada in the winter of 2010. A few months later, the first phone with Bada on the market, the S8500 Wave. Then the Wave II and Wave 3 followed, as well as several cheaper variants. Due to the low prices Bada took 2 percent of the smartphone market in the past year and a half. This makes Bada larger than, for example, Windows Phone, Forbes calculates.

However, Bada is still not a full-fledged operating system: Bada is just an open platform on an rtos kernel. Rtos kernels are mainly used in cheap telephones. The Linux kernel will be the foundation of the OS resulting from the merging of Tizen and Bada.