Symbian's report on their business in the second quarter of 2008 makes some good reading. The Headline number of shipped Symbian OS units is an impressive 225.9 million units over 249 different models, and compared to Q2 2007, there's been an increase in sales for that period of 5%. Digging a little deeper, the royalty received peer unit has dropped from an average of $4.30 to $3.40, leading to an 18% drop in income from royalties.

It's clear that Symbian is still moving forward strongly, and the drop in income and handset royalties is expected as Symbian gains popularity and market share. Of course the royalty issue is something that the Symbian Foundation won't have to deal with when the OS goes Open Source, and part of me thinks that if the income from the handsets continues to drop then the impact of going open source in terms of lost licence revenue is not going to be as drastic as once thought. There is growth in the income derived from consulting, from £2.6 million in Q2 2007 to £4.2 million in Q2 2008.

Symbian's CEO, Nigel Clifford commented:

In ten years we've achieved an enormous amount. Together with our customers we have invented, built and continue to lead the smartphone market. We are particularly pleased that our customers have reported that Symbian mobile phones are strong contributors to their financial performance and that each of our licensees has shipped at least one new Symbian mobile phone model since the beginning of 2008.

The report also notes the intention to form the Symbian Foundation, and the upcoming Symbian Smartphone Show in London on the 21^st and 22^nd of October. The full report can be read here.