True to form, and sooner than expected, Samsung last week unveiled three new models of bada-powered mobile handsets in Kenya. This is in line with last month’s MobileMonday Kenya meeting as reported on this blog when Samsung announched that they planned to launch more bada handsets in Kenya by early 2011.

The first bada model to hit Kenya was the high-end Samsung Wave S8500 a few of months ago which, until now, was the only bada handset in the market. Therefore, Samsung now have a total of 4 bada handsets in Kenya, most of which are low-cost compared to the originally launched Samsung Wave S8500. I have unconfirmed information that eventually, Samsung plan to launch a sub Kes. 9,000.00 bada model in Kenya by next year.

Bada is Samsung’s proprietary mobile operating system and applications platform that became operational earlier this year. To-date, the main concern about bada had been the lack of handsets and therefore the new models emerging indicate there will indeed be a good market going forward for local mobile applications. Samsung is currently running a local mobile applications competition in Kenya, also as reported in a post on this blog.

In terms of the new bada line-up in Kenya, the three models are the Wave 525 GT-S5253, Wave 533 GT-S5333 and Wave 723 GT-S7233E. The specifications and pics for each are as follows:

Wave 525 GT-S5253 (Kes. 14,499.00)

• Bada OS
• Quadband EDGE
• 3.2″ touch screen
• 3.2 MP Camera
• Email
• GPS/Geotagging
• MicroSD support (16GB)
• WIFI

Wave 533 GT-S5333 (Kes. 15,999.00)

• Bada OS
• Quadband EDGE
• 3.2″ touch screen and QWERTY keypad
• 3.2 MP Camera
• Email
• GPS/Geotagging
• MicroSD support (16GB)
• Multiple IM/SNS
• WIFI

Wave 723 GT-S7233E (Kes. 21,999.00)

• Bada OS
• 3G
• 3.2″ touch screen and QWERTY keypad
• 5 MP Camera
• Email
• GPS/Geotagging
• MicroSD support (16GB)
• Multiple IM/SNS
• Premium Leather Flip
• WIFI