Bangalore: Samsung has launched its own operating system (OS) for mobile to compete against other open source platform, Symbian and Google Android. The OS is named Bada, which means 'ocean' in Korean, is an open platform that Samsung is hoping will attract both customers and developers to its devices. The company has not released several details about Bada, but said it will have a strong user interface, be developer friendly, and enable mobile operators to offer various content and services, according to InformationWeek.

The company also said it encourages integrating common experiences and functions across applications, which means core functionalities like the dialer, messaging, and address book will be open to developers. Users will also eventually be able to download Bada applications over the air from Samsung's Application Store. "By opening Samsung's mobile platforms we will be able to provide rich mobile experiences on an increasing number of accessible smartphones," said Hosoo Lee, Executive Vice President at Samsung, in a statement.

Samsung is jumping into the already crowded and highly competitive area of mobile platforms and will be competing against Microsoft, Google, Symbian, Apple, Research In Motion, and Palm.

Samsung also said the Bada software development kit will be released in December, and handsets with the OS are expected to arrive in 2010. Samsung has not made it clear whether the company will continue to manufacture smartphones with Android or Windows Mobile once Bada is ready to go.