Bada and Tizen to merge platforms I

Samsung's Senior VP of Contents Planning Tae-jin Kang in a discussion Friday gave surprise word that his company's Bada and Intel's Tizen would merge. The strategy mapped out for Forbes would let Tizen run any apps written for Bada. Ultimately, the two would end up sharing the same developer interfaces and effectively share the same roots.

Kang wasn't certain how soon the integration would be finished. One to two phones would use it this year, he anticipated, and he didn't rule out the possibility of a tablet.

The deal mostly favors Intel. Samsung's Bada is still much smaller than Android, BlackBerry, or iOS, but the internally developed OS has been big enough that it still outsells Windows Phone despite Microsoft's heavy marketing and presumptions of value in its brand name. Intel, however, has routinely struggled to get any share with its self-made platforms and was dealt its biggest blow when Nokia marginalized it in favor of Windows Phone for nearly all its smartphones.

The merger could help create a second successful open mobile platform beyond Android and may be more open in practice. Google regularly withholds source code and doesn't allow most outside contributions or access to certain parts of its OS core.

By Electronista Staff

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Intel, iPhone, industry, Microsoft, Google, Nokia, Linux, Android, Samsung, mobile phones, Apple, Windows Phone, bada, MeeGo, Tizen