There are no 7,888 third party applications available for Symbian OS phones (up from 5,323 last year) with 2,139 of these being for Symbian OS 9.x. There are 3,005 Symbian Signed applications, from 700 different companies.
One negative piece of news from this quarters summary is the drop from 9 licensees with phone in development this time last year to 8 now. Its is unlikely to include those who have recently released phones: Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung, Mitsubishi, Sharp, Fujitsu and LG (8).
Quote from Nigel Clifford, Symbian's CEO:
“We are pleased with these results. Symbian continues to lead the smartphone market in Q2 2007 with more than 18.7 million Symbian smartphones shipping worldwide, 52% growth since the same period last year. We feel that the rise in popularity of smartphones, the proliferation of affordable high-speed data networks, and the innovation which companies are showing on open mobile platforms should see us extending our 14 quarters of growth into the future. We are in the right market at the right time with the right product.
We’ve worked hard to extend the close collaboration with our customers - the world’s leading handset manufacturers - and operators and have built a strong product pipeline. We are particularly pleased that our customers have reported that Symbian smartphones are strong contributors to their financial performance.
Symbian has a highly innovative product roadmap under development which will ensure that our leadership in high-end converged devices is extended whilst our access to mass market segments is constantly broadened. As proof of this, there are now 122 Symbian smartphone models in the market from 8 licensees – a rise of 42% over the same time last year – and another 62 phone models in development, which we know about.”
Symbian also released its unaudited financial figures which reflect the growth in shipments. The income from royalties has increased by a smaller percentage than might be expected due to the changes in the license fees Symbian charges manufacturers (this is also reflected in a decreased average royalty per unit figure):
|
2007 H1 |
2006 H1 |
H1 YoY Change |
2007 Q2
|
2006 Q2
|
Q1 YoY change |
|
|
Symbian OS Units |
34.6m |
24.0m |
44% |
18.7m
|
12.3m
|
52% |
|
Average Royalty / Unit |
US$4.4 |
US$5.5 |
|
US$4.3
|
US$5.7
|
|
|
Royalty GP% |
93% |
89% |
|
93%
|
89%
|
|
|
Turnover |
£m |
£m |
|
£m
|
£m
|
|
|
Royalties |
78.2 |
73.4 |
|
40.3
|
37.9
|
|
|
Consulting Services |
5.1 |
4.9 |
|
2.6
|
2.4
|
|
|
Partnering & Other |
2.1 |
1.7 |
|
1.2
|
0.9
|
|
|
Total |
85.4 |
80.0 |
7% |
44.1
|
41.2
|
7% |
The Symbian outlook section of the release suggest some of the areas that Symbian are currently working on:
Quote:
Symbian is confident in the development and growth of the smartphone market and its position as the leading open OS developer. The current era of convergence demands a truly scalable mobile operating system which can meet both the demands of the global mass-market and the next generation of converged mobile computing:
- super3G, WiMax and 4G
- all-IP wireless broadband and bearer mobility
- ultra high resolution colour displays
- rich multimedia enablers (for creation, consumption, communication)
- high speed, low latency real-time networking
- large memories and persistent storage
- superior graphics effects in the user interface
- energy and thermal efficiency
- content protection and rights management.
The full set of information, including a summary of announcement from the quarter, can be read here on the Symbian site.