Samsung Redefines Vaporware: 'Bada'Samsung Redefines Vaporware: 'Bada'

Samsung herded up the tech press in London today to share more information about Bada, its new homegrown mobile operating system. Yours truly hopped the Atlantic to attend. Unfortunately, all Samsung demonstrated was its ability to fling every buzzword in the book at attendees.To call today's event a waste of time would be an understatement. Bada was first announced by Samsung last month. Bada is going to be Samsung's new feature phone platform, and promises to deliver the smartphone experience to non-smartphone devices. Today's audience hoped to learn more, as this was to be the official launch of the new mobile operating system. Only there was no launch.

Sure, lets of guys with fancy title got up and talk, but I didn't learn anything new. Not only did I not learn anything new, Samsung didn't have any demos, any phones, or even any screen shots of what the new OS will look like and how it performs. Instead, we were blasted with buzzword after buzzword after flowery statement after flowery statement.

Samsung shared nothing real. (OK, they did say that Bada will have a Flash-based UI, is compatible with C++, and will become the next generation of its TouchWiz user interface.) But that's it.

After making a lot of promises, Samsung trotted out some of its committed developer partners. My favorite was the head of Twitter's mobile business. He got up, introduced himself, and said "we're excited about the opportunities that Bada presents" and then he left. Samsung flew him half way around the world for that?

Perhaps the ugliest moment was a quick demonstration of a game on Bada. I forget the name of the game, but it was a grisly first-person shooter. During the demonstration, the player shot a person in the head, which exploded graphically on a huge screen. Um, have class much, Samsung?

Here are some choice quotes from Samsung executives at today's event:

"Android is too expensive"

"Android is too difficult to use"

"Bada has the best mobile user interface in the world"

"A phone is not a phone, it is a full gaming platform"

"Gaming will be an important part of the Bada experience"

"Bada is beautiful"

"Phones will become your uber-remote control"

My verdict: Right now, Bada is Nada. it's the very definition of vaporware. Until Samsung can actually produce a working version of the platform on a phone, it's simply an interesting idea.