Actual quote from the Bada developer web site.
Samsung bada is a new open platform that enables a richer user experience in applications on Samsung mobile devices.
Realistic interpretation from myself
Samsung bada is an open smartphone platform based on Linux, that, while targeted to run on lots of Samsung mobile devices, current and future, remains a self-serving effort devoid from partners. Face it, Google might be selling its own mobile device, which is isn’t even manufactured by them so might as well say they’re not selling their own device, they are still partnering with multiple companies. In all of bada’s texts on their web site, not once can the word “partner” be seen. It looks like Samsung doesn’t really intend on using bada as a true open platform for multiple manufacturers but really as an excuse to have people develop for it and eventually buy Samsung phones. The prospect is interesting nevertheless, especially considering the amount of Samsung smartphones out there, but the face value pales in comparison to Android’s goal.
In my opinion, where it really happens is at Google and Apple. Everything else, be it Nokia Maemo, Samsung bada or Windows Phone 7 Series, seems to be almost bound to become nothingness in the future.
Nevertheless, it’s nice to see that a lot of companies play the open source card to go against Apple’s iPhone. That’s a mighty good thing for the open source community, especially Linux, despite much of it being a coolness factor cover for an otherwise not much community-developed platform.
This resembles Firefox and Chrome. They’re both open source, but one’s not really community-made. On that word, that’s a whole other debate and matter.
