South Korean electronics major, Samsung has announced the launch of its new smartphone platform Bada in the Indian market. The company has also announced plans to reduce the prices of its smartphones in the country by the end of this year in order to expand its market share.

The new platform was launched during the Global Developer Day organized by Samsung in Bangalore. The company presented the benefits and opportunities the platform will offer to developers, mobile operators and consumers along with the fundamentals of the platform.

The company launched its first smartphone on Google's Android platform called Samsung Galaxy and also Samsung Wave based on Bada platform on Wednesday. Samsung Wave smartphone is priced at Rs
19,000 in the Indian market.

"Samsung `bada', our new mobile platform is the key driver of our global smartphone strategy. I see the launch of Samsung bada as a powerful opportunity for developers all over the world, especially the vibrant Indian developer community renowned the world over, to get their applications onto an unprecedented number of Samsung devices worldwide," said J S Shin , President& CEO , Samsung South West Asia.

Presently Samsung offers two smartphones in the country based on the Windows platform. It plans to launch about eight more smartphones this year and about half of those will be based on the `Bada' platform.

Samsung is aiming to capture a market share of about 20% in the current financial year by selling around 50,000 smartphones. The company will have to compete with the likes of Research In Motion, Palm, Acer, Nokia in the smartphone segment in the country.