19 August 2005

Symbian Outpaces 2004 Shipments in First Two Quarters

Symbian announced another strong quarter, with 7.8 million phones containing the Symbian OS shipping during the second quarter of 2005. To date, the company calculates a total of more than 39 million Symbian OS smartphones shipped.

In terms of the first half of 2005, the company said shipments in the first six months of this year outpaced all the shipments tallied for full-year 2004. Symbian reports 14.5 million smartphones were shipped during the first half of this year. Royalty revenue from its shipments during the first half came in at $75 million, more than doubling year-over-year.

Nigel Clifford, Chief Executive Officer, Symbian Ltd said:

“In the first half of 2005 more than 14.5 million phones based on Symbian OS shipped to network operators and retailers worldwide. This 191% increase on the equivalent period in 2004 shows the rapid growth in the global market for phones based on advanced operating systems and that Symbian has maintained and continues to extend its leadership of this global market. Although we are delighted by Symbian’s H1 performance, shipments of Symbian OS phones remain small relative to the overall handset market. Symbian’s strategic focus must remain on driving increased shipments through the adoption of Symbian OS for further handset models, and particularly for the development of lower price, mid-range handsets designed to ship in higher volumes.

At the end of H1 2005, a total of 54 Symbian OS phone models were shipping from seven licensees (end of H1 2004 – 23 phones, 6 licensees). Of these 54, 18 phone models from Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, Motorola, Nokia and Panasonic commenced commercial shipment in H1 2005. The number of Symbian OS phones in development also continues to grow with a total of 50 Symbian OS phones in development by 11 Symbian OS licensees (end H1 2004 – 34 phones, 10 licensees). Arima, BenQ, Lenovo, Nokia and Samsung have each shown publicly their Symbian OS phones under development.

Symbian OS licensee products are designed to meet the specific needs of network operators both in terms of supporting different network technologies (2.5G, 3G) as well as meeting the needs of specific customer segments, for example the Motorola M1000 for NTT DoCoMo for the business users (see below) or the Fujitsu F880iES for NTT DoCoMo for less technically-oriented customers. In April, Nokia announced a new range of multimedia devices, branded as the Nokia N series, based on Symbian OS and the Series 60 User Interface platform. The first devices in this range, the Nokia N70, N90 and N91 devices – are designed to offer end users the latest technologies and digital media content, for example the Nokia N91 targets the mobile music market.

Of the 54 Symbian OS phone models shipping at the end of H1 2005, 16 are designed for W-CDMA (3G) networks, showing Symbian OS as the clear industry choice for 3G handset development. Symbian’s strength in 3G, particularly in Japan, was underlined by the launch of five new Symbian OS phones for NTT DoCoMo’s FOMA 3G network during H1 2005. Two phones were developed by Fujitsu, two by Mitsubishi and a fifth by Motorola. The M1000 is Motorola’s fifth Symbian OS phone but its first specifically developed for NTT DoCoMo’s FOMA network. Targeted at the business market, the M1000 is the world’s first dual mode phone compatible with international 3G, 2.5G and 2G mobile networks as well as public wireless LANs.

In June, Symbian hosted two events in Tokyo that attracted more than 1,000 representatives from Symbian OS licensees, Symbian Partners and the wider mobile industry from Japan and from the rest of the world to explore the burgeoning business opportunities represented by Symbian OS. On October 11th - 12th 2005, Symbian will host The Smartphone Show in London, UK. The Smartphone Show is the world’s largest event of its type and, reflecting the growth of the smartphone market and Symbian’s strong market position, the event is on track to grow substantially, with more than 5,000 visitors anticipated.