Samsung Electronics has built global leadership in mobile phones, but in a fickle industry looks more vulnerable than its nemesis Apple Inc without an 'ecosystem' - software, services, content and customer support - to keep its users loyal.
"They need to move out of that mentality of just selling people a device," says Rachel Lashford, Singapore-based managing director of mobile for Canalys, a consultancy. "They need to get their head around the idea that they're no longer just a hardware company."
The ecosystem standard has been set by Apple: offering mobile users downloadable programs and content - such as iTunes for music and the App Store for programs - which are best, and often only, accessible via and across Apple devices. This binds users to Apple and makes them more likely to buy another Apple device - an iPhone user buying an iPad, say.
"Apple's greatest achievement beyond the design of the device has been the development of its ecosystem," said Scott Bicheno, UK-based senior analyst at Strategy Analytics.
While Apple has been slow to make some of these services available in some parts of the world - it only recently unveiled its iTunes Store across much of Asia, nine years after its U.S. launch - it is still ahead of rivals.
Samsung's efforts to build something similar have been at best halting.
The latest version of Music Hub, a service combining downloaded music and streaming, is only available for users of its new top-end phone, the Galaxy S III. Early reviews are mixed. It is also building an ad network via a partnership with OpenX, a service that Mar Pages, Singapore-based principal at Delta Partners, likens to Apple's iAd. These services allow application developers to embed adverts in their software.
Samsung said Music Hub, which is available in close to three dozen countries, will be expanded to other markets and also be available in more smartphones as well as Internet-enabled televisions and computers.
"Samsung is doing our best to offer best content and services to our customers... We are in partnership with leading global developers to cooperate in content and application development and plan to further improve our offerings,Samsung has not abandoned bada, but its emphasis on Android alienated its fan base and developers. "The top management may have had focus," said Srinivasan, who quit the company last year, "but it was dispiriting to see the company was making very good Android devices and promoting them more than bada ones."
Samsung said in January it planned to merge its operating system with Tizen, an open source platform promoted by Samsung and chipmaker Intel Corp. It hasn't issued a press release about bada since November 2011.