Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., a leading mobile phone provider, announced on Saturday the commercial availability in the Saudi market of its much-awaited Samsung Wave smartphone. Unveiled at a press conference held in Jeddah at Park Hyatt Hotel, the Wave is the first smartphone based on Samsung's new, open smartphone platform, bada, and is the cornerstone of the company's commitment to “smartphone democratization.” The Samsung Wave is the first handset in the world that incorporates the Bluetooth 3.0 and WiFi 802.11n standards. With the launch of the Wave, Samsung is actively constructing a total eco-system around bada platform including Samsung Apps. Samsung Apps will be available in 80 countries when the Wave launches, and will increase the premium content and applications pool through collaboration with partner companies and developers. Samsung's bada platform will drive the democratization of the smartphone era and deliver a smartphone for every lifestyle. The bada is the secret behind the Samsung Wave and enables applications to fully utilize the powerful hardware by providing various APIs for interactivity including UI elements, 3D Graphics, Flash, multipoint-touch, sensors and motion support. In addition, service-oriented features such as social network integration, LBS (location-based service) and in-application-purchase, allow users to experience a variety of applications and content. The availability of the Samsung bada SDK (Software Development Kit) will ensure that consumers can experience a steady stream of new applications that support bada platform. The beta version of the SDK was recently made available to applications developers, and the complete bada SDK 1.0.0 will be available for download shortly. “The Samsung Wave represents our strategy to deliver rich, exciting smartphone experiences to everyone,” said Andrew Shin, business manager of mobile phones at Samsung Electronics in Saudi Arabia. “This launch will make our platform vision a reality and consumers, developers and operators will experience the freedom of choice that bada enables.” Samsung Apps, an integrated application store accessible from the device and online, allows Wave users to simply and easily download an abundance of applications. Featuring a wealth of games, navigation, social networking, e-book, health and lifestyle applications, Samsung Apps gives users instant access to a wide range of mobile experiences. Participating application providers include The Associated Press, Electronic Arts, Facebook, Gameloft, Layar, MySpace, Namco Bandai, Twitter, Universal Pictures International, WeatherBug, ZAGAT and many others. Including well-known applications such as Need for Speed Shift (EA), Tower Bloxx(Digital Chocolate), Weather Bug(WeatherBug), and ZAGAT TO GO(Handmark), a multitude of useful, productive and entertaining applications will be offered at Samsung Apps. The Samsung Wave benefits from a superb 1GHz processor which offers users the best graphic performance available today. Its speed makes the touch screen user interface incredibly responsive and intuitive.
