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Samsung is launching its Apps Store based on the company’s Bada platform, beginning with its ground-breaking Wave smart phone, which hits the marketplace in May and was launched recently at the GSM Association’s Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona.
The company confirmed to Siliconrepublic.com that it will be one of several smart-phone devices that will enter the market this year with the Samsung Apps Store.
“If you look at the numbers, Samsung are a clear No 2 in the world,” said Gary Twohig, country manager for Samsung Mobile in Ireland.
“We are 20pc of the global sales of mobile phones – that’s 230 million phones we sold in 2009 across the world.
“Our plans are to launch at least half of our devices this year with the Samsung Apps Store available on them. That’s 115 million handsets out there in the world with the Samsung Apps Store on them. So straight away the developer in Ireland has access to up to 115 million people’s most important daily tool to sell their application over.”
The Wave is the first mobile handset to be released on Samsung’s new, open mobile platform, Samsung Bada, and the cornerstone of the company’s commitment to provide a smart phone for every lifestyle.
About the Samsung Wave
The Samsung Wave offers a Super AMOLED 3.3” display that makes the screen truly come alive, a Social Hub to bring you closer to your contacts and connections, and TouchWiz 3.0 for an intuitive and customisable user interface. The Wave’s high-speed CPU ensures swift, smooth application experiences and multi-tasking, making the device an always-on mobile multimedia companion.
The head of Samsung Mobile worldwide, JK Shin, said recently that the plan is to bring social media via the smart phone to everyone in the world in an affordable manner, making apps available for everyone, not just the cash-rich few. “The Samsung Wave truly demonstrates our commitment to deliver rich, connected and innovative smart-phone experiences to everyone,” said Shin.
“Samsung Wave sees our platform vision become a reality. For the first time, developers have the freedom to create applications across multiple platforms, for consumption on a huge range of devices. In the Wave, our developer partners can see the ocean of opportunity that is offered by the Bada mobile platform and our device technology,” he said.
Apps prize fund by Samsung
In December, Siliconrepublic.com reported that Samsung is offering a US$2.7-million prize fund to recognise the best apps being developed for the rich social media world it is about to unleash.
Twohig explained: “It’s the largest prize fund as of yet for any development competition. Basically, there’s US$2.7 million up for grabs and that’s shared across a number of different prizes. The overall winner will win US$300,000.
“Those developers we’re dealing with here in Ireland, we want those developers to be putting forward their apps for this competition. The winners will be announced later in the year.
“What the judges will be looking out for the most will be uniqueness and creativity, whether it’s a commercially viable application or just general newness – is there a real market for that application?
“They’ll be judging on that criteria – the winning app has to be easy to use. These are the kind of apps that will win the prize at the end of the day,” Twohig said.
By John Kennedy
Gary Twohig, country manager, Samsung Mobile
Topmost photo: The Samsung Wave
