Samsung's Bada gets a developer kit

When I'm Bada I'm better?

Developers desperate to start creating applications for Samsung's Bada platform can now start coding, though it will be few more weeks before there's a handset to run them on.

The Software Developer's Kit version 1 is available from the Bada Developers' portal, which promises that the Bada-based Wave phone (which should be shipping by the end of the month) will be followed by "successive promising handsets", and that Bada phones will be available globally later this year.

Bada is Samsung's answer to Apple's iPhone/iTunes combination - the platform is entirely owned by Samsung, which will approve and distribute all the applications. That might seem strange given that Samsung also supports both Android and Symbian and is a member of the widget-obsessed Wholesale Application Community, but never let it be said that Samsung left a base uncovered.

The Wave is an attractive enough handset, but at almost £400 it's priced more like a smartphone than the mid-range feature phones that the Bada platform is supposed to enable applications for.

But the Wave is intended as a flagship phone for Bada, the one that developers use to show off their applications before selling them to punters equipped with lesser handsets.

How much lesser we don't know, and until Samsung tells us it's hard to imagine many developers rushing to create applications for a phone that promises all the expense of a smartphone without the features. But if you're one of those few then sign up and download today. ®