Since Hewlett-Packard announced that it will stop manufacturing webOS devices, there have been rumors going around that Samsung will buy Hewlett-Packard’s PC business, but last week,  Samsung chief executive Choi Gee-sung firmly denied it.  Samsung relies heavily on Google in terms of their operating system Android and with Google’s acquisition of Motorola, this makes Google more of a competitor than an ally.  This led to more rumors that Samsung is out to buy webOS from HP.  They said they won’t buy the PC business but they didn’t say anything about the webOS, right?  And with news of Steve “Cyanogen” Kondik and his group being the first to make Android apps run on webOS platform, there could be truth to this rumor.

As reported yesterday, Samsung will launch the free messaging service ChatON on Bada devices, with support for other mobile operating systems.  While Samsung’s strategy is planted in cross-platform support, ChatON is also another instance where Samsung can combine efforts around its mobile OS and its device distribution.  Samsung has launched previous Bada-powered devices, but their Android devices were the ones that helped Samsung make their mark in the mobile race, beating Apple smartphone sales with their Galaxy S devices.

Bada is a Korean word that means “ocean” and “seashore,” which conveys the openness of the sea.  This is precisely what Samsung aims to achieve with the Bada platform–to accommodate various applications created by developers as well as provide an interesting new space that offers unprecedented enjoyment to its users.

Towards that effort, Samsung unveiled three new Bada devices:  the Wave 3 that features a 4-inch AMOLED screen, 1.4GHz processor, a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and connects either through Wi-Fi or HSPA and will sell for approximately $445; The Wave M which will be the first to feature ChatOn which features content sharing, the ability to send messages to a group of users and an Interaction Rank feature that allows users to see how often they communicate with their contacts ; And the Wave Y which has a 3.2-inch display.  Wave M and Y will cost less than $200.

All three smartphones will run on Bada 2.0, and Near Field Communication (NFC) is available as an option.  The devices will all be on display at the 2011 IFA in Berlin and the free messaging service ChatOn will also be demonstrated here before it officially rolls out in September (see here for more devices expected to be unveiled at IFA).

The Wave series will have access to the Samsung Apps store, which has 13,000 applications available for users which is minute compared to Android’s 100,000 and Apple’s 300,000 apps in the App Store.  It’s significantly smaller than competitor marketplaces, which will introduce another challenge for Samsung as a device’s ecosystem is sometimes more important than the OS on which it runs.

With Samsung’s launch of these new Bada smartphones, you can’t help but think that they are now pursuing to become more than a hardware manufacturing company but also a software manufacturing company, a move HTC is considering as well.  If Google starts favoring Motorola regarding Android updates or releases, Samsung has something to fall back on.  And if they do end up purchasing webOS, they could integrate it with Bada to expand its capabilities (or make things more complex).  Also, there are reports that the government is urging Samsung as well as LG to drop the Android platform, according to Droid-Life who cites both DigiTimes and MotleyFool as sources on this thread.

“South Korean government is urging both Samsung and LG to join a coalition, made up of other Korean companies, to develop their own mobile operating system. The South Korean deputy commerce minister stated that the companies cannot go on relying solely on Google. Rumors are now pointing to Samsung’s interest in HP’s WebOS, which are stating that the tech giant is looking to purchase the mobile operating system rather than licensing it.”