Samsung pulls a Google and gives devs free Bada phones, confirms upcoming handsets

@grg / 11:46 am PDT • May 24, 2010

Google didn’t invent giving stuff away. Oprah did that. Google just made — or at least greatly popularized — the trend of companies giving their latest and greatest handsets to all the attendees of the developer events in hopes of spiking their interest.

The latest company to pull a Google: Samsung. At a Developer Day in South Africa, the company just passed out Bada Wavesto everyone around.

They also revealed a number of new details — some good, some.. not so good.

The Bada app store will be manually moderated — if its got drugs, sexually-suggestive content, or anything that “incites violence or hate”, it’s a no go.
In a one-on-one chat with PhoneReport, a Samsung rep confirmed that the next Bada phone will look much like the Wave with a sub-$200 pricetag, while the one after that will rock a full QWERTY keyboard. This is inline with what we saw on that leak back in April.
The Bada App Store will launch in South Africa and 19 other (unspecified) countries, with plans to hit 80 countries within just a few months
Apps can be free or paid
Paid apps are paid for via credit card, though Samsung says they’re working with carriers to implement carrier billing.
Samsung hopes to sell 10 million Bada handsets this year, and 20 million by the end of next year.

[Via PhoneReport]