A Guide to the Samsung Apps Store

A Guide to the Samsung Apps Store
Page content

The Bada OS comes with its own app store, called the Samsung App Store.

<img src="https://img.bhs4.com/4b/d/4bd0e3029b9624f03b9b720a7dbc6b0df447d58d_large.jpg" alt="Samsung-Apps-logo-web">

The greatest news for all Bada users out there is that every app and widget in the Samsung Apps Store is completely and totally free! Although paid apps will be implemented somewhere in the distant future.

The Samsung App Store

The Samsung App Store has a simple, clean, clear and easily navigable interface. Dominated by the Samsung colors of white and blue, the website has a top bar with the tabs; About Samsung Apps, Browse Apps, Support and samsung.com.

The homepage opens up with a very pleasing and easy to use window that displays the top apps of the month divided into the categories of featured, top free and top paid which is not in use and simply shows the sign “Paid services will soon be available”.

About Samsung Apps

The About Samsung Apps section displays another very cool slide show window that gives a basic introduction to the Samsung Apps Store. Along with an option to view a movie about the Samsung Wave and another tutorial video about downloading apps directly from your phone.

Browse Apps

The Browse Apps section is where the Samsung App store truly comes to life, as this is where you can navigate, choose and download all the apps. The wIndow features a selection of the new and most downloaded apps, while to the right is a list of the 15 most downloaded apps. Left of the window you will find the option to select your phone and as a result the apps available for it and a list of categories such as; Entertainment, E-Book, Utilities, Productivity etc. In total there are 14 categories to choose from.

It should be noted that the website will automatically select your country when you visit, however, the option to select another country is available.

Support

The Support section is the weak spot in the Samsung App Store, the FAQ and Q&A section are woefully inadequate, as a matter of fact the FAQ section is not even properly functional as of right now. Clicking on the Q&A section simply redirects you to the local Samsung website of the region in the country you are accessing the website from. The most useful feature of the Support section is the access provided for aspiring developers, the news section and finally the most important section. The how to download apps tutorials.

Downloading Samsung Apps

Downloading apps can be be done in two ways, the first is a direct download on your smartphone running Bada. It is fairly straightforward as all it involves is pressing the Samsung Apps icon on your phone, selecting the app, and clicking download.

On the other hand downloading an app onto your PC then transferring it to your smartphone seems like a very big fuss, and is not a particularly straightforward process. First a download of the Samsung Kies program is required, which is the Samsung App Store presented as a program instead of as a website. A big drawback of the Samsung Kies program is that it only supports the Window OS, so no luck for OS X or Linux users.

Once Kies has been downloaded and set up, a process that involves selecting your country, all you have to do is select your app from a personalized window that has a wish list and Twitter support, connect your device and wait for it to download. It will automatically transfer the app to the phone if it is connected.

You can also download an app without a phone connected to your PC and transfer it later. However, the app will only download if the phone you own is first selected. Downloading an app from the Samsung Store into your PC is a lot more trouble than it’s worth, your best bet is to download an app directly from your smartphone.

The Samsung App Store is a very well done app store that is easy to navigate due mainly to the low number of available apps. However, the support is truly woeful and the Kies program is very underdeveloped as yet. The Samsung App Store is best experienced through a smartphone, preferably the Samsung Wave or the Samsung Wave II.

To get started check out the top ten Bada apps.