Samsung – the world’s second-largest handset vendor – will launch its flagship ‘Wave’ smartphone (pictured) in the next few weeks as it aims to become a major player in the high-end device space. Unveiled in February at the GSMA Mobile World Congress, Wave is the South Korean vendor’s first smartphone to run its new, proprietary ‘bada’ operating system. According to Reuters, Lee Ho-soo, head of Samsung’s smartphone operating system, said that Wave will launch in Britain and Germany in the coming weeks and the company will also open its own applications store in June to provide content for its bada smartphone users. Of note is the fact that Mobile Business Briefing reported at the time of the February unveiling that Wave would be available in April this year. Several other reports today state the device will be available from Vodafone UK on June 1st.

Last month Samsung said that smartphones based on its own operating system bada would amount to one-third of its total smartphone offerings this year. Analysts believe the vendor will have a tough time attracting developers to a proprietary platform in the face of huge competition from open-source rivals Android and Symbian, as well as established ‘closed-shops’ such as Apple’s iPhone OS, but Lee claimed Samsung has enjoyed “a very strong response from application developers… and we see strong potential in bada to become a major operating system.” Although the world’s number two mobile phone vendor with around 20 percent market share, Samsung has struggled in the high-end smartphone space and is attempting to treble its smartphone shipments in 2010 (to around 18 million) by expanding its portfolio.