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Barcelona. Samsung Electronics and Sony Ericsson have unveiled their new top smartphone models, both hoping to improve their positions in the more lucrative part of the phone market.

Samsung, the world’s No. 2 handset maker, unveiled its flagship smartphone model Wave — using a new touch screen technology and the first phone to use its Bada operating system.

“Samsung’s commitment to Bada is underlined by the fact that it is using it to power its flagship product for the show but it’s going to be an uphill struggle to get the developer community on board,” said Ben Wood, research director at CCS Insight.

Earlier this month Samsung unveiled a plan to treble smartphone shipments in 2010 and promote its own Bada software platform. Analysts, however, have been doubtful of Samsung’s efforts to belatedly build a new open platform. With limited volume, phones using Bada will have difficulty attracting application developers or operator support.

“I think the ecosystem is just not ready yet,” said analyst Carolina Milanesi from research company Gartner.

Samsung said it plans to launch five to seven phone models using Bada software this year.

Samsung and Sony Ericsson have seen consumers seeking Web and other PC-like functions increasingly turning away from their feature phones to computer-like smartphones from top vendors Nokia , Apple and Research In Motion.

J. K. Shin, the head of Samsung’s mobile operations, said that with the help of Bada the company would benefit from surging demand for new smartphones in emerging markets.

“I believe that the smartphone market will grow more than 20 percent every year for a three-year time frame, and the growth rate in emerging markets is much higher than that of advanced countries,” he said

Shin said the company could make phones for Google’s Nexus lineup in the future, but Sony Ericsson chief executive Bert Nordberg said the company had turned down an offer to make phones for Google.

“We will only sell phones under our own brand,” Nordberg added.

The world’s fourth-largest phone maker Sony Ericsson, which has reported seven straight quarterly losses, unveiled three smartphone models, using Google’s Android operating system in two of them, and Nokia’s Symbian in one.

“Some of the obituaries that have been written on Sony Ericsson may be a little premature. There’s no doubt the company still has challenges but these new products are a step to help fuel a recovery,” CCS’s Wood said.

Sony Ericsson’s new mini smartphones remind consumers of the last small models from Ericsson itself about a decade ago.

“I think the products are competitive and certainly encouraging. The user interface is pretty good and will help them over LG,” Milanesi said.



Reuters