(MWC 2010) Samsung to spend over 130 bln won on mobile software this year

By Lee Youkyung
BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 17 (Yonhap) -- The chief executive of Samsung Electronics
Co., the world's second-largest handset maker, said Wednesday that Samsung's
investment in mobile software this year will exceed the 130 billion won (US$113
million) spent last year.
"Last year Samsung invested 130 billion won in the software area," Choi Jee-sung,
Samsung's chief executive officer, told reporters while touring the Samsung booth
at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. "This year we will spend more
than that."
Samsung Electronics said earlier in the year that it will spend 18.4 trillion won
on domestic and overseas investments this year, without offering a breakdown of
specific areas.
Choi, who previously oversaw Samsung's mobile business, was appointed as
Samsung's new CEO in December. Upon taking the helm at Asia's largest maker of
memory chips, flat screens and handset, he said Samsung will place equal emphasis
on mobile software, as the rapid spread of the smartphone segment brings handset
device makers' attention to the growing sector.
Samsung unveiled the Wave, its first smartphone based on Samsung's own Bada
operating system at the mobile show.
"It is just a beginning," Choi said, asked to evaluate Samsung's Media Solution
Center, which developed the Bada operating system and Samsung application store
established in 2008.
"Samsung's hardware is well above any other handsets," he added. "But our
ecosystem is behind. We need some time adjusting to the new system."
ylee@yna.co.kr
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