So Samsung have finally confirmed their plans to move away from Android. They have a new OS called Tizen coming out. Does that mean we'll see the demise of Bada or will it co-exist with Tizen? I think they should focus on only one?
I do see the positives in having an in-house OS as opposed to relying upon another company being in control of the software - BUT Samsung could be shooting themselves in the foot here. I think it's far too soon to be considering a move away from Android. Maybe Tizen could stumble and they remain with Android OS for longer. After all, Bada seemed okay but had some difficulties in maintaining it's place. I remember how Masta preferred it to Android at the time of the Samsung Galaxy S and the Samsung Galaxy Wave.
Competition will be good, but I hope Samsung remain a key partner with Google.
Samsung aren't really going to move away with Android. They are doing great with Android. With Tizen they are just experimenting with a back-up plan. They are pouring billions into their smartphone business - they need something in case Google screw up with Android at some point to keep their business going.
Picture this - Samsung is the biggest smartphone manufacturer, if Android fails at some point and people will move away from it Samsung would be screwed. Sure, they make WP smartphones but from all we know despite hundreds of millions in marketing WP is LOSING market share (3,6% to 3% drop over the last 3 months in the US). There's iOS but it's exclusive to Apple. Samsung need a back up plan and Bada is a very niche thing (though its global market share is actually bigger than WP's).
Bada for me was a decent OS because it had all the smartphone features with all the positives of a feature phone (like 10day+ stand by battery life). Bada 2.0 was a bit heavier, but their biggest problem is really small amount of apps. I switched to Android because there was no Google Maps or Skype for Bada. Also it was only a tad more customizable than iOS - Touchwiz is coded deeply into the OS.
Samsung actually wanted to integrate Bada key features into Tizen and make Tizen the combination of those two but I'm not sure what happened with those plans. Samsung being the biggest player in the game certainly wouldn't want to be left without successful OS for their great hardware and currently there are no good options apart from Android and iOS. Samsung need a plan B.
