14.4 million Symbain OS powered handsets were shipped in 2004 (reports Symbian). With 41 phones shipping and another 40 phones in development from the 12 announced licencees. Going hand in hand, 4001 third party applications are now available for the platform. Symbian are looking to build on this in 2005 in conjunction with their partners, and bring the unit cost of building a Symbian device into the $70-$100 mark, which will open up the mid-range mass market to their Partners and Licencees.

Press Release
Symbian OS phone shipments reach 14.4m in 2004
LONDON, United Kingdom – 14 February 2005 – Symbian Limited today released the following unaudited financial and operational figures for the fourth quarter ended 31st December 2004:

Highlights
2004 full year shipments of phones based on Symbian OS totalled 14.38m (2003 - 6.67m); year on year growth of 116%, the third consecutive year in which Symbian OS phone shipments have grown by more than 100%.
Global shipments of Symbian OS phones in Q4 2004 reached 5.68m (Q4 2003 - 2.76m units), of which almost 2.5m phones shipped in December.
At the end of December 2004, cumulative shipments of Symbian OS phones since Symbian’s formation reached just under 25m phones.
During Q4 2004, 14 new phones based on Symbian OS commenced shipping from BenQ, Fujitsu, Motorola, Nokia, Panasonic and Sony Ericsson.
As at December 31st 2004, 41 phones from 8 Symbian OS licensees were shipping to more than 200 network operators around the world.
Of the 41 Symbian OS phones shipping at the end of 2004, 9 were shipping to network operators in Japan and across Europe for use on W-CDMA (3G) networks.
In Q4 2004, Sharp Corporation became the latest Symbian OS licensee. Also, Sharp and Sony Ericsson announced their intention to develop 3G phones based on Symbian OS for NTT DoCoMo’s FOMA network.
At the end of Q4 2004, the number of commercially available third party applications for Symbian OS phones had almost doubled year on year to reach 4,001 (end Q4 2003 - 2,060 applications) (Source: Symbian research, see Notes to Editors for methodology).
At the end of Q4 2004, 40 phones and variants based on Symbian OS were under development by 12 licensees (see Notes to Editors for definitions) (Q4 2003 - 26 phones and variants under development by 9 licensees).
David Levin, Chief Executive Officer, Symbian Ltd said:
"Symbian continued to make good progress in the fourth quarter of 2004 with more than 5.6m phones based on Symbian OS shipping to retailers and to more than 200 network operators around the world. In 2004 as a whole, Symbian OS licensees shipped 14.4 million phones, taking the installed base of Symbian OS phones to just under 25 million phones.

In Q4 2004, a total of 14 new Symbian OS based products were launched by six Symbian OS licensees, taking the total number of Symbian OS-based products in the market to 41. The ‘pipeline’ of Symbian OS products in development continued to expand, with 40 Symbian OS phones and variants now under development by 12 Symbian OS licensees. The majority of these products are anticipated to come to market over the course of the next six to 18 months.

Symbian OS licensees are developing products for all types of network technologies (GSM / GPRS, CDMA, EDGE and W-CDMA), for a wide range of geographical and language-specific markets (Europe, North & Latin America, Japan, China), as well as targeting specific market segments such as enterprise, imaging and gaming.

Technology

With an installed base of almost 25 million phones, rising worldwide shipments, significant and material engagements with the world’s leading handset vendors and network operators, as well as the continuing growth of a commercially thriving product and application development community around Symbian OS, Symbian has achieved clear leadership of the global market for advanced mobile phone operating systems. In February 2005, Symbian launched the latest version of Symbian OS, Symbian OS v9. Enhancements in Symbian OS v9 focus on assuring its suitability for development of higher volume, mid-tier phones that provide network operators with the best possible platform for the cost-effective deployment of targeted value-added services and content to all segments of their customer base (See Symbian press release "Latest version of Symbian OS targets smartphones for mass market"). The licensing structure for Symbian OS v9 is identical to that agreed for recent versions of Symbian OS (see Notes to Editors). Phones based on Symbian OS v9 are anticipated to come to market during the second half of 2005.

Market

Symbian’s market position in Japan and in wider 3G markets continues to strengthen. Almost a quarter of all phones based on Symbian OS currently shipping are 3G phones. In November 2004, NTT DoCoMo made public its selection of Symbian OS as a common software platform for handsets designed for its 3G FOMA network. In December Symbian was pleased to welcome Sharp Corporation as the latest Symbian OS licensee. Sharp and Sony Ericsson have both announced their intention to join Fujitsu in developing handsets based on Symbian OS for NTT DoCoMo’s FOMA network and for 2.5G and 3G networks around the world.

Outlook

Symbian has a leading position in the advanced phone operating system market and is well placed to benefit as W-CDMA or 3G networks are deployed increasingly widely and as network operators look to offer more and more of their subscribers a broad range of commercial, value-added content and services."