Samsung to fold Bada smartphone platform into Tizen

Samsung and Intel plan to further their collaboration in the mobile space by merging Samsung's Bada smartphone platform with the Tizen operating system, in a move aimed at offering a viable alternative to Google's Android.

According to reports, the Korean electronics giant intends to fold its Bada platform into Tizen, which is still at an early stage of development.

In effect, this means Samsung is ditching Bada and refocusing its mobile efforts behind Tizen, with some backwards-compatibility for Bada applications delivered in future handsets.

Tizen, announced in September last year, is an open-source platform based on Linux and backed by the Linux Foundation.

Samsung and Intel are already the vendors leading Tizen development, following the demise of Intel's earlier Meego effort in partnership with Nokia.

Unlike Bada, which is a mix of open-source and proprietary technology, Tizen is being developed with APIs based on HTML5 and other web standards. An early preview of the Tizen source code, SDK and APIs was released earlier this month.

Samsung only released Bada 2.0 late last year, along with one new handset based on it, the Wave 3.

However, Samsung may be looking to reduce its dependence on Google's Android, which is expected to ship on two-thirds of Samsung handsets this year.

Although Bada devices have been well received, Samsung may believe it stands a greater chance of success by folding its proprietary platform into a larger open-source effort with wider industry backing.