Samsung will update Bada 1.2 firmware for Wave in 2011

KOREAN PHONE MAKER Samsung has announced via Twitter that it will release its Bada 1.2 firmware update for European SIM-free Wave handsets early next year.

Bada means ocean in Korean, and while European Waves will get the firmware update first, the company went on to tweet that support for the rest of the world will follow during the first quarter of 2011, with different update dates depending on the country and operator.

The company launched its first Bada operating system based phone back in January. The Wave has since been joined by the Wave 2 and the Wave Pro, which were announced in June.

In June Samsung held its UK Bada developers day to encourage people to produce apps for the handset OS. The INQUIRER asked Samsung if apps were going to become as important to phone sales as game availability is for consoles, but the company didn't think so. The INQUIRER doesn't agree and rather like Symbian, Bada has a fight on its hands to attract buyers with claims of thousands of apps.

Samsung was supposed to be launching the Wave 2 in the UK this month but that looks like it's a deadline that will swoosh on by. Not so Bada bing, but rather Bada gone by. µ