Samsung Bada is a dud. Less than 10 million shipped, sales 50% below expectations and falling

Staska  By on 26 Sep 11

Samsung Bada is a dud.

Its sales stopped growing sometime early this year. Today Samsung is selling less Bada phones then they’ve been selling a year ago. And current Samsung Bada powered Wave handset sales are at least 50% lower then what Samsung was projecting at the end of  2010.

My first doubts that there is something wrong with Bada sales surfaced few months ago, when “10 million Bada devices sold” news release never arrived .

As you may have noticed, Samsung is very happy to report whenever one of its products reaches some significant milestone. Late last year Samsung said that they plan to sell 10 million Bada devices in the first half of 2011. On top of 5 million they were planning to move in 2010. So, if everything went according to plan, there should have been at least two Bada related announcements this year already:

It is almost 3 months since the first half of 2011 ended, and we are still waiting for any 2011 Bada  related news releases.

The second hint that something is wrong in Badaland came last week, with the reports that Samsung is planning to open source Bada next year. You never do that if your proprietary OS is a success.

Today, if the slide obtained by Sammy Hub is real, we get some numbers to see how Samsung Bada is doing this year. And the numbers aren’t pretty at all:

Forget about Samsung’s plans to sell 10 million Bada phones in the first half of 2011. They weren’t able to ship even half of that.

In fact, Samsung now plans to reach 10 million total cumulative Wave device sales sometime at end of October/beginning of November. Which means that instead of growing, Samsung Bada sales started declining this year. In 2010 it took them 8 months to ship the first 5 million devices with a homegrown OS. This year it will take 11 months to do the same. In a smartphone market that is growing at 70% a year – these are dismal results, on par with Nokia’s, RIM’s and Windows Phone performance.

Of course, Samsung is is smart enough not to depend on the success of Bada. And its gains with Android handsets more then offset any losses from Bada.

But as far as Sammy’s ambitions to have its own smartphone OS go, its prospects look very dim for now. Maybe Bada Meego hook-up, if it ever happens, will help to get both fledgling projects off the ground. Though I am not holding my breath here.

 

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  • http://www.theandroidsoul.com/ Kapil

    My first doubts that there is something wrong with Bada sales surfaced few months ago, when “10 million Bada devices sold” news release never arrived .

    Nice said!

    [Btw, I don't like pointing this out but there is a typo in Title. Needs immediate fixing!!]

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_K3MVOVHEK4AZY777NI5KWHGL5U David Jenkins

    Finally mastered its/it’s, I see.

    But if you are truly someone who makes a living writing, maybe you should figure out fewer/less and then/than. The fact that you have this job still sickens me.

  • http://www.staska.net Staska

    Oh, David,

    Your crusade to get me fired from the site I own was funny for a while. Especially your e-mails (via contact form) to management (me) asking me to fire myself…

    But enough is enough. You don’t like it – then don’t read it. Your obsession with my writing  mistakes are getting old and don’t bring anything to the discussion. So unless you have something on the topic of the posts you comment on, just go away and do not comment. 

    I will be deleting your grammar nazi rants from now on. 

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_K3MVOVHEK4AZY777NI5KWHGL5U David Jenkins

    You are one pathetic guy, you know that? You have your own site that writes stuff AND YOU CANNOT EVEN WRITE. What the hell?

    I guess you couldn’t get a job anywhere else because you don’t have the skillset. Congrats on owning your own site.

  • http://www.staska.net Staska

    Ok, David – after thinking a bit about all this, I’m sorry for a mocking/condescending tone and name calling in my reply above. You got the worst of me  with the way you constantly comment here. 

    English not my first language and I freely admit that there is a lot of room for improve my writing. You and others pointing out to it’s/its thing actually helped. 

    If you want to continue pointing my mistakes feel free to do so. But do it in civilized and constructive manner. 

    Or, if you want to continue this indignant tone, name calling,swearing, etc; like you did in all your previous comments, and in those 2 I just deleted – I will continue to delete them and will ban you from commenting here permanently

  • Anonymous

    Nice to know I’m not the only one who was scratching his head over the declining sales figures. 

    Now as someone who was hoping Samsung would be able to pitch Bada as a legitimate alternate to Android and iOS, I’m somewhat disappointed. Samsung has all this cash and manufacturing expertise to boot. But it seems to me they’re having a hard time convincing buyers Bada is here to stay. When we also factor in Samsung’s lack of expertise in software, it leaves me wondering whether we’ll see better things in 2012. 

    I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Yeah, call me a nerd. I strangely enough don’t have a modicum of interest in professional sports. But Bada’s potential intrigues me!

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