London, United Kingdom - 23 August 2006 - Symbian Limited, the software licensing company that develops and licenses Symbian OS™, the market-leading operating system for advanced, data-enabled mobile phones, also known as smartphones, today released the following unaudited financial and operational figures for the second quarter ended 30 June 2006:
H1 and Q2 2006 financial highlights
| 2006 | 2005 | Change | 2006 | 2005 |
Symbian OS Units | 24.0m | 14.5m | 65% | 12.3m | 7.8m |
Average Royalty / Unit * | US$5.5 | US$5.4 |
| US$5.7 | US$5.3 |
Royalty GP% * | 89% | 84% |
| 89% | 86% |
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Turnover | £m | £m |
| £m | £m |
Royalties * | 73.4 | 41.6 |
| 37.9 | 21.8 |
Consulting services | 4.9 | 7.9 |
| 2.4 | 3.9 |
Partnering & Other | 1.7 | 2.1 |
| 0.9 | 1.1 |
| 80.0 | 51.6 | 55% | 41.2 | 26.8 |
23 Symbian smartphone models (see definition) commenced shipping in Q2 2006 including
Region | Symbian smartphones models commenced shipped Q2 |
Japan | Fujitsu FOMA™ F902iS , Mitsubishi FOMA™ MUSIC PORTER X , Sharp FOMA™ SH902iS, Sony Ericsson FOMA™ SO702i, Mitsubishi FOMA™ D902iS, Sony Ericsson FOMA™ SO902iWP+ |
USA | US variants of the Nokia N91 |
China | Chinese language variants of the Nokia 3250, Nokia N71, Nokia N80, Nokia N91 |
Europe & ROW | Sony Ericsson M600i, Nokia N72, Nokia N80, Nokia N91, Nokia E60, Nokia E61 and Nokia E70 |
Total Symbian smartphone models shipping at end H1/Q2
| End H1/Q2 2006 | End Q1 2006 |
Number of Symbian smartphone models in the market | 86 | 66 |
Number of licensees with Symbian smartphones in the market | 10 | 10 |
Number of Symbian smartphone models in development | 55 | 56 |
Number of licensees with Symbian smartphones in development | 9 | 9 |
- 82.8 million cumulative Symbian OS phone shipments since the formation of Symbian
- In addition, five new Symbian smartphone models, all based on Symbian OS v9, were publicly announced in H1 but were not shipping as of the end of Q2:
- Q1 - Sony Ericsson W950 WALKMAN
- Q2 - Nokia N73, Nokia N93, Nokia E50, and Nokia 5500 Sport
- 5,323 third party Symbian applications are now commercially available, an increase of 29% on Q2 last year (Q2 2005 - 4,122 applications) (Source: Symbian research, see Notes to Editors for methodology)
Nigel Clifford, Chief Executive Officer, Symbian Limited today said:
"Symbian continued to lead the smartphone market in Q2 2006, with more than 12.3 million Symbian smartphones shipping worldwide, bringing the total shipment of Symbian smartphones since the Company's formation to over 82.8 million. During Q2, Symbian's revenues grew to £41.2 million - an increase of 54% on Q2 2005.
New phone models distributed globally
Continuing our commitment to reach all markets, a total of 23 new phone models based on Symbian OS started shipping in Q2 2006. They included new Symbian smartphones in Japan, USA, China, Europe and the rest of the world.
Leadership in 3G
Symbian underlined its 3G focus with 15 of the 23 new Symbian phone models that commenced shipping in Q2 2006 designed for 3G W-CDMA networks. In Q2 2006 92% of the worldwide 3G smartphone market was powered by Symbian OS (source: Rachel Lashford Canalys, July 2006).
Emerging smartphone lifestyle
As the smartphone category broadens across regions and into the mass market, Symbian continues to offer choice and differentiation, including support for multiple user interface options to respond to network operator and diverse regional market requirements.
I am very pleased to see growth this period in the range and variety of services made possible by phones based on Symbian OS. For example in Japan, NTT DoCoMo's FOMA SH902iS uses face recognition via the phone's built-in camera for secure authentication, allowing the phone to be trusted for a range of m-commerce transactions. The recently-introduced remote record function on Sky by mobile, a streaming TV delivery and online real-time betting service for mobile phones, adds the ability to program a Sky+ personal video recorder remotely. The announced Nokia 5500 Sport contains a specialized software package that enables sports enthusiasts to monitor, record and store their exercise activities on the go including, for example, speed and distance, steps taken and calories burned. These and other services are contributing to a new smartphone lifestyle, as smartphones are enhancing the way people work and enjoy their leisure time.
New product release
At our Japan Summit in July we announced the availability of our latest Symbian OS release, version 9.3. Symbian OS v9.3 builds on the success of the v9 family as a robust, secure, open and standards-based OS for smartphones. It includes enhancements to phone performance and memory management resulting in more responsive applications and phone features. It offers new hardware support including integrated WiFi. Complete with this release are comprehensive development tools for creating new phone variants based on Symbian OS, reducing the time taken to customize phones for network operators and for targeting different market segments.
Symbian customers are currently developing phones based on Symbian OS v9.3, with product launches anticipated in 2007.
Outlook
Symbian remains the leading open OS developer in the mobile market. This market is undergoing rapid change with the convergence of network technologies (including fixed mobile convergence) and of media provision.
We are delighted to be supporting our licensees to deliver compelling products such as the Nokia 3250 music device, which has shipped over 1 million units in less than four months since its launch, and the announced Sony Ericsson Walkman W950. We expect innovation to continue apace as new networks and device technologies enable new services, many of which will be on display at the Symbian Smartphone Show, taking place in London, 17th and 18th October.
Looking forward, with the new range of new Symbian OS v9 phones soon coming to market and with the availability of our new scalable pricing options from July 06 onwards, I expect to see an acceleration of Symbian smartphones in the lower cost device market segments, driving higher volumes of exciting phones and services."
- Definitions and Additional Information
Royalty Revenue - Symbian receives a royalty on each phone based on Symbian OS shipped by licensees. From Symbian OS v7.0 onwards the royalty has been set at $7.25 per unit for the first 2 million units shipped by a licensee and $5 per unit thereafter. From v9.0 onwards after 1 July 2006, licensees are being offered an additional pricing model based on either (a) a fraction of the trade price of devices shipping; or (b) an annual volume ratchet pricing structure.
Symbian also receives additional royalty revenue for devices shipping with the UIQ software developed by Symbian's wholly-owned subsidiary, UIQ Technology AB.
Royalty Gross Profit - Symbian in-sources certain technologies when either:
i) there is already an appropriate industry standard developed by another party or
ii) technology can be more efficiently provided by an outside supplier (e.g. WAP / web browsers; personal computer connectivity),
and, in both cases, where Symbian considers that such technologies should form part of Symbian OS to satisfy market and licensees' requirements.
Consulting Revenue - Symbian undertakes consultancy activities to assist its licensees implement Symbian OS in new handsets. Symbian receives revenue to cover costs (including full overhead recovery) but, such activities are primarily in support of licensees adoption of Symbian OS. The level of consulting revenue will fluctuate depending upon: (a) the volume of new engagements with licensees; (b) the ability of licensees to develop new Symbian OS phones without the assistance of Symbian; and (c) the ability of Symbian Competence Centers to provide support for licensee product development.
Phone models - Symbian defines phone models on the basis that the following conditions are satisfied:
" the device is manufactured in commercial quantities; and
" the device is available in retail channels; and
" the device has a unique model identifier and/or is a publicly announced variant or derivative: US with 850 MHz radio, China, Japan or CDMA. (Up to two variants or derivatives from the following segments: US, China, Japan, CDMA; public announcement on the part of the licensee must be fully auditable through licensee's marketing collateral or web content)
Partnering & Other Revenue - Symbian derives a further revenue stream from training activities, partner activities (including the Symbian Platinum Partner Program) and trade shows. These activities are designed to promote Symbian OS and are therefore priced to enable cost recovery only. - Number of Symbian OS Applications
Symbian tracks the number of commercially available Symbian OS applications. This is done through surveying the applications offered for sale by a wide range of on-line, commercial distributors of Symbian OS applications.
To be included in the count of Symbian OS applications, an application must be offered for sale by a company, not an individual.
Applications which are offered for sale but which do not meet these criteria are regarded as "Shareware". Symbian maintains separate counts for "Shareware", "Freeware" and "Open Source" applications.
Only applications written for, or specifically shown to work on, Symbian OS phones are included in the Symbian OS application count. The count includes applications written using any of the wide variety of programming languages supported by Symbian OS, including C++, Java (pJava or MIDP), AppForge Crossfire and OPL.
The number of Symbian OS applications does NOT include Java MIDlets that have not been developed specifically for, nor have been explicitly validated as running on, Symbian OS phones. It is therefore likely that there are many additional Java MIDlet applications that will run on Symbian OS phones. - About Symbian Limited
Symbian is a software licensing company that develops and licenses Symbian OS, the market leading open operating system for advanced, data-enabled mobile phones, also known as smartphones.
Symbian licenses Symbian OS to the world's leading handset manufacturers and has built close co-operative business relationships with leading companies across the mobile industry. During H1 2006, 24 million Symbian OS phones were sold worldwide to over 250 major network operators, bringing the total number of Symbian OS phones shipped to 82.8 million.
Symbian is hosting The Symbian Smartphone Show, 17-18 OCTOBER 2006, at EXCEL, in London, UK. For more information or to register or visit:
Smartphone Show
Symbian has its headquarters in London, United Kingdom with offices in the United States, Europe (England and Sweden (UIQ Technology AB)), Israel and Asia (India, P.R. China, Korea, and Japan).
Symbian