Samsung predicts 6 million bada smartphones shipped in 2010

Regardless of the fact bada is Samsung's own project, confirmation the world's second largest handset mobile manufacturer is set to dedicate a third of its entire shipments in 2010 to the OS is fairly big news.

It's also a testament to the faith Samsung has in the platform, with head of the firm's smartphone operating system Lee Ho-soo telling Reuters its OS has the potential to become a major player in the coming years.

"You need a proprietary system to drive growth in the smartphone market and bada will do the job, as it is designed to support all segments from low to high end," he stated.

"We have a very strong response from application developers... and we see strong potential in bada to become a major operating system."

Building the bada base

Samsung aims to shift 18 million smartphones across the course of the year, with the firm maintaining its support fo Android and Symbian and backing Windows Phone when it launches later this year.

However, by declaring such a figure, it's possibile to deduce Samsung expects to ship 6 million bada handsets during the same period.

With only one bada phone currently announced the Wave, due to launch next month some commentators expect Samsung to begin equip existing handsets with bada OS before the year is out in order to meet its quota.

Lee has also confirmed that while bada won't be made available to thirdparties, it will likely pop up in some form on some of Samsung's other products in the future, including televisions and PCs.

[source: Reuters]