Samsung launch Bada, an open mobile OS and competition for Android

Samsung have just announced that they will be launching their own open mobile platform, called Bada.  They will be holding a developer conference in December to formally launch the OS and to release the SDK to developers.  Given that Android is going from strength to strength, and is free, why waste time developing your own OS, particularly one that is solely for Samsung devices?  Samsung claim Bada will “deliver simple, intuitive, and innovative user experiences through innovative visual design”.  It will have it’s own “next generation” user interface which Samsung seem to be quite proud of, but it’s hard to tell as there have been no photos leaked as yet.
Samsung hope that “bada-powered devices will be a significant force in the (mobile) market in 2010″.  Time will tell I guess, but, whilst this is a bold, ambitious move, I just can’t see any benefit to not sticking with Android.  It’s free and there are already devs out there using it.  Even releasing a custom Samsung user interface in the same way as Sony Ericsson plan on doing with their Rachel User Experience.   Unless, of course, Samsung know something about Android and it’s future that we don’t…?
You can find out more here, at the official Bada site.