CAIRO: Samsung will launch its own software platform called Bada for smart phones in 2010, company officials said at a roundtable last week. "The platform is Samsung's effort to reach out to end users and to enhance creativity and user interactivity, said Mostafa Aboul Fetouh, head of HHP division of Samsung Egypt. Anyone will be able to develop applications which, after review by Samsung, can be published in Bada, where mobile users will be able to access it. Samsung is, thus, entering a market in which Apple has taken a strategic position as a pioneer since it opened the iPhone application store to third-party developers in early 2008. Google's Androit platform is another big competitor in the market since it became available to the public in October 2008. The launch of Bada comes as Samsung registers significant growth in touch-phone sales. They accounted for 20 percent of Samsung's mobile sales in 2009. Samsung Star sold 10 million sets in only six months after it was introduced; Samsung Star sold 3 million in three months. On the Egyptian market Samsung holds the second biggest market share. For the second half of 2009, it occupied 16.2 percent of the market. Fetouh refused to specify the exact sales figure in Egypt for 2009. The company offers a variety of phones through all Egyptian mobile operators and mobile technology distributors. "What is really important is to have competitive prices to attract Egyptian users, said Aboul Fetouh. He explained that Samsung offers a wide range of mobile products grouped in four categories regardless of price: style, infotainment, multimedia and business. Latest releases are made available on the Egyptian market regularly. Omnia II, Samsung's newest smart phone, will be introduced in early 2010. Asked about competition from cheap Chinese mobile phones, Fetouh replied, "We rely on our latest technology. To keep up with the top technology developers, Samsung spends nearly 10 percent of its sales on research and development. "The company spent 9.5 percent of its net sales or about $5.5 billion on R&D in 2008, said Duke Park, general manager of Samsung Egypt. The only R&D center in the Middle East is located in Israel. Asked to comment on that and on Samsung's future expansion in Arab countries in the region, Park said that business and politics should not be mixed. He also said that given the big market for appliances in Egypt, the country is a good candidate for a Samsung production unit. Park also introduced Samsung's latest initiative to follow environment-friendly standards. "We decrease power consumption by 40 percent compared to any other LCD TV, he said.
