It appears that Samsung has now stepped into the mobile phone operating system game with their new mobile OS called bada, a name apparently based on the Korean for “ocean,” reports electronista.

Samsung’s bada mobile operating system is designed to be open and is expected to compete directly against such rival operating systems as Android and LiMo.

The word is Samsung’s bada is based on universal standards and will not consider core aspects of the operating system as off limits, and can be extended by developer features. Apparently bada will sport a central applications store and carriers will have the option to customise the operating system as well. Samsung predicts the first bada sporting handset to hit in the first half of 2010.