Samsung announced yesterday that it’s launching its own open mobile platform, bada, in December and will stop making use of Symbian in 2010.

The name 'bada' means ocean in Korean. The name was chosen to express the potentially limitless variety of apps that can be created for the platform.

According to Samsung, bada is easy for developers to make use of, apparently one of the most developer-friendly environments yet offered, especially in the area of applications and clients for web services.

bada will apparently also offer mobile operators an easy-to-integrate platform that they can customise to create exclusive services for their customers.

“By opening Samsung’s mobile platforms we will be able to provide rich mobile experiences on an increasing number of accessible smartphones,” said Dr Hosoo Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of Media Solution Center at Samsung Electronics.

“Bada will be Samsung’s landmark, iconic new platform that brings an unprecedented opportunity for operators, developers and Samsung mobile phone users around the world.”

The official launch event for bada will take place in London during December with the bada software development kit (SDK) being unveiled at the launch.