When it comes to smartphone operating systems, there are few that can compete with either Android or iOS. Apple and Google (News - Alert) have long been known as the king of the hill of the smartphone OS with Blackberry and Microsoft trailing behind like the often forgotten little brothers. Despite the stranglehold on the market, these operating systems currently hold, it appears as if a new player is trying to get in on the fun. 

Samsung (News - Alert) is working on its own mobile operating system by upgrading its Bada OS by merging with Tizen’s open source programming. Bada was originally launched in 2010 as a way to get Samsung’s customers who were not using smartphones to transition to the higher end devices. This particular mobile phone operating system was originally designed to not even come close to taking on Apple (News - Alert) or Google in the mobile OS market. Now it appears that Samsung is through sitting on the sidelines and does indeed want to see whether they can take on the big boys.

Bada 2.0 will incorporate the Tizen software that was originally part of a plan put together by Intel (News - Alert). This new merger will also take on pieces from the now defunct MeeGo system. Bada and the Tizen network will run the same SDK and have the APIs making it far easier for developers to come up with interesting applications. This collaboration means that there are going to be a wide variety of developers who are experts in either the Bada, Tizen or MeeGo universe. Samsung is hopeful that developers for these different networks will see there is a lucrative reason to start working harder at putting together apps that are attractive to the average user.

Industry insiders are also saying that while the Bada and Tizen networks will be compatible, they will also be kept separate to some degree. Bada will apparently be installed on some of the company’s lower end phones, while the Tizen operating system will be on the higher end models. Samsung has said that it expects to launch at least one Tizen phone this year.

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