The government of South Korea is quite happy that Samsung, their prized possession, will now be getting some legal assistance when it comes to dealing with their Android related court battles, but at the same time they view Google’s recent $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola as grounds to start work on their own mobile operating system. Kim Jae-hong, Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, said this on Monday: “We plan to develop Korea’s own web-based operating systems by forming a consortium of local companies. We will forge ahead in developing a new kind of operating system, which is being seen as a next-generation product, in order to build the kind of advantage we do not enjoy in the market for smartphones and tablet PCs, which is dominated by Google and Apple.” The Yonhap News Agency adds: “Kim said Samsung had been very negative about joint development of an open OS, but its stance changed greatly after the Google-Motorola merger.”
That last quote is quite the opposite of what Samsung has openly said after Google announced the Motorola deal. We imagine that what they said to the press was more of a stunt than anything else, and that right now they’re either calling up HP and looking to buy what’s left of webOS, port Bada to higher end devices, or dare we say it … make Windows Phone responsible for a larger portion of their portfolio.
Truth be told, whenever the word “consortium” is used in a press release related to a software project, we know it’s never a good thing. Money will be spent on a project that will go nowhere, Samsung will continue making money hand over fist on all their mobile phones, smart or not, and you’ll forget this piece of news as quickly as it took you to get to the bottom of this article.