Yesterday we attended the first Samsung Bada Developer’s Day in London. Samsung, Red and White, and Headstream put on this amazing one day event in central London for all technology companies and engineers eager to learn about the new Samsung Bada platform. Samsung gave a free Samsung Wave to every company that attended. It was an enticing offer that attracted some of the biggest names in mobile. The Vice President/Ph.D. of Service Platform Group and chief architect of the Bada platform Justin Hong was in attendance. nothingGrinder were lucky enough to get an interview with Justin. We got up close and Bada Bing, found out about Flash Player integration.
Samsung Bada Developer's Day London
Q: Can Bada run Flash Player in the browser, and if so, what version is it running?
A: Bada supports Flash Player plugin in the browser and native application UI can be programmed / animated with a Flash Lite API.
I did some digging and found that the Samsung Wave comes with Flash Player 9.1.1 pre-installed.
Amendment 6/20/2010 – Thanks to Alessandro from Biskero for the comments and technical information. See comments for more details.
Also see: Flash Lite 3.1 FAQ
The Samsung Wave has Flash Lite 3 installed, as far as I know it is not a full Flash Player version. I am still waiting for verification from Adobe & Samsung.
Amendment 7/5/2010 – Email from Samsung confirming Flash Lite 3 in the browser.
Samsung Bada Application Developer Service Overview
Q: Will Bada support Flash Player 10.1 and hardware acceleration?
A: Yes and yes.
I suspect the Flash Player in Bada will be updated to 10.1 later this year. It was implied at the conference that Bada will support 10.1 this year and I was told there will be two platform updates before the end of 2010.
Samsung Bada to reach 80+ countries
Q: In regards to the Open Screen Project, how closely is Samsung working with Adobe?
A: I am unsure of the status of Samsung’s relationship with the Open Screen Project.
This was surprising. I assumed that engineers at an executive level would be more aware of the relationship between Open Screen Project partners. Perhaps this question is better directed at Adobe or Nokia.
Samsung Bada to reach 150+ operators
Q: What is Samsung’s view on the future of the web and their plans to support new web technologies?
A: Samsung plans to support as much of the web as the hardware will allow. Currently, some technologies are too advanced for the hardware but this will change in the future.
Justin said Samsung has an open view of the web and do not want to limit developers in any way. They will do their best to support as many new technologies as possible. They are also working towards full HTML5 support.
Samsung plans a 70:30 split for both Application revenue share and localized to global apps.
Q: Will Bada support Adobe AIR runtime?
A: At this time AIR is a bit heavy, but as the hardware gets better and AIR becomes more optimized, Samsung plans to support it on the Bada platform.
Samsung will not use any technologies the hardware cannot handle. I think they do this to protect the stability and speed of the platform. Personally, I still have yet to see an AIR application running on Android. I purchased a Google Nexus One last week and cannot find any downloadable AIR application for it. This is probably the reason we don’t see AIR on this release of Bada.
Samsung want to help developers get paid
Q: How often can we expect operating system updates for the Bada platform?
A: We plan to update the SDK once a month and we expect 2 platform updates per year.
In conclusion, Bada has a promising future. The Samsung super Amoled display on the Samsung Wave is very impressive and provides the richest graphics I’ve seen to date on a mobile phone. They have done a great job of supporting developers with a diverse SDK and strong community. They have also spent time developing a strong business model around their platform. Bada is what one might expect from a mobile platform. As the hardware gets better I think we will see some amazing things in gaming and web accessibility from Samsung Bada.
On a more personal note, as much as I enjoy my new phone, I don’t think it will get much use. The Wave’s usability is a not quite there yet. The Google Mail app and maps both jump me to a web browser. Settings and menus for most applications and display screens are hard to find. There are 2 Bada releases scheduled for this year and I hope they will help resolve the usability issues.
Here is an Justin Hong explaining the technology behind Samsung Bada:
