Samsung's first Bada phone to be shown next week?

In November, Samsung launched its own open smartphone platform called Bada, which the company positioned as a replacement for Symbian, and eventually the rest of Samsung's proprietary non-smartphone operating systems.

Since that time, Bada has been keeping a pretty low profile. Samsung showed off screenshots of its UI and some quick videos of software (and Flash) running on the platform at a London event last December. The company also said the first Bada phone would be available in the first half of 2010.

Now, with Mobile World Congress just around the corner, Samsung has set up a huge advertisement for a new device called the Wave, with the tag line "with Samsung's new mobile platform Bada."

We've contacted Samsung to see if we can get a taste of what to expect from the consumer electronics giant next week.