14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung announced that the size of its application store had tripled in many of its major European, Asian and Latin American markets. The South Korean manufacturer expects even more growth with the launch of Wave, its first smartphone based on the bada OS.
Inaugurated in September 2009, Samsung Apps is a marketplace designed to provide a variety of mobile applications specially created for Samsung phones. Accessible from the mobile phone as well as the PC, the store offers an assortment of programs ranging from entertainment and social-networking utilities to e-books and health-related tools. In only eight months since its creation, the number of applications available in the United Kingdom, France and Italy has more than tripled, while Germany experienced a 100% increase.
The release of the Wave handset will generate even more demand for Samsung's European application stores. The smartphone is the first device to feature the manufacturer's new operating system, bada. The touchscreen phone with a 3.3-inch Super AMOLED display and a 1GHz processor has been recently launched across Europe.
“Launching the application store has enabled Samsung to increase smartphone sales, while at the same time add value for our existing customer base,” Kanghyun Kwon, vice president, Media Solutions Center, Samsung Electronics, declared. “Samsung Apps allows users to discover new apps, which are consistently making our smartphones more useful, productive and entertaining. In the future, we will continue to offer apps perfectly optimized for our smartphones, and introduce new devices to fit all lifestyles.”
Some of the most well-known application providers featured on the Samsung Apps store include The Associated Press, Astraware, Digital Chocolate, Electronic Arts, Gameloft, Handmark, Layar, MySpace, Namco Bandai, Twitter, Universal Pictures International, WeatherBug, and Zagat Survey. A few of the many applications that can be downloaded are Need for Speed Shift, Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X., 3D Tower Bloxx Deluxe, WeatherBug, and ZAGAT TO GO.
The Samsung app store is currently available in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, Spain, Sweden, Poland, Singapore, Hong Kong and Russia, with more than 80 countries to follow with the Wave launch.