It's easy to write off ventures such as bada – Samsung's forthcoming smartphone OS.

Not only are there plenty of options for consumers in terms of sexy smartphones to buy, but developers are finding themselves stretched across lots of competing platforms. 

So the news UK veteran mobile studio Distinctive Developments is to bring its iPhone games Hockey Nations and Rugby Nations to bada is an encouraging sign.

We caught up with MD Nigel Little to find out why the studio is so keen on Samsung.

Pocket Gamer: Why have you decided to support bada?

Nigel Little: Samsung sold 227 million phones in 2009 so when it introduces a new platform you have to take notice as it could grow very big very quickly.

As I began to speak with Samsung about bada it became very clear it would be something the company was putting significant resources behind to make it a success.

Samsung is also positioning it into a new market segment rather than taking on the likes of iPhone and Android directly. This makes perfect sense and will expand the market for our smartphone games.

What is bada like to develop for?

Coding for the bada OS is very simple. It's a C++ and OpenGL ES based platform and our teams have a wealth of experience of developing for those.

Samsung also provides a great selection of sample apps that you can learn from, good documentation and an active forum for developers to pose their technical questions.

We had the initial port of Hockey Nations 2010 running on the simulator within a couple of days but then spent several weeks adding some bada specific features to the game.

How does it compare to iPhone?

The first bada handset, the Wave, has great technical specs with a 1GHz processor, a speedy 3D accelerator and a beautiful Super AMOLED screen.

This compares favourably with the very latest iPhone. The OS balances complexity with usability very well, with a mixture of widgets and traditional features.

What are your hopes for bada. Do you think further titles are likely?

Bada's goal is to expand the market for smartphones into the territory currently held by feature-phones. Given that smartphone sales currently only account for roughly 20 percent of all phones sold, we're excited by the huge potential offered.

We will definitely be producing further titles for bada, no question about it. Now we have our core framework running on the platform we can quickly target all smartphone platforms at once.

Will Hockey Nations and Rugby Nations retail for the same price as on the Apple App Store?

Yes!

Will you support other new mobile OSes?

As one of the developers formed at the very start of the mobile games industry, one of our strengths is that we have the experience of supporting multiple mobile platforms.

When new platforms arrive, we evaluate them, technically and whether there will be a good return on investment.

We'd prefer all platforms to be C++ and OpenGL ES based so Windows Phone 7 [which uses Silverlight and XNA] presents more of a challenge to support than other platforms.

Technically those problems can be overcome but we'll probably tread carefully to see if the return on investment is there.
Thanks to Nigel for his time.