From Symbian.com
Worldwide shipments of Symbian OS phones reach 5m in first half of 2004
See press release for full details
LONDON, UK, 4th August 2004 - Symbian Ltd today released the following unaudited financial and operational figures for the second quarter and the six months ended 30th June 2004:
H1 2004 Operational Highlights
Global shipments of Symbian OS-based phones grew to 5.0m (H1 2003: 2.7m units) in H1 2004, a year-on-year increase of 85%, bringing the total installed base of Symbian OS phones to more than 15 million.
At the end of H1 2004, six Symbian OS licensees were shipping a total of 23 Symbian OS products to network operators in Japan and throughout GSM / GPRS territories worldwide
During H1 2004, Symbian OS licensees announced products targeted at a wide range of mobile networks, geographical markets and customer segments :
- W-CDMA, 3G products for European and Japanese network operators including Nokia 6630, FOMA F900i, F900iT and Motorola A1000
- GSM / GPRS, 2.5G products included Arima ASP 805, BenQ P31, Nokia 7610, Nokia 6260, Panasonic X700, Samsung SGH-D710, Sony Ericsson P910
- Products and variants for specific regional markets such as Siemens SX1c and Sony Ericsson P910c for Chinese markets; Sony Ericsson P910a, Nokia 6620 for North and Latin American EDGE and 850MHz networks
- Market segment-targeted devices as Nokia's N-Gage QD game deck and the Nokia 9500 Communicator for enterprise markets
At the end of H1 2004, 34 phones and variants based on Symbian OS were under development by 10 licensees (end of H1 2003, 26 phones & variants and 9 licensees) - See press release for full details
Three new Symbian OS licensees were announced during the first half of 2004
LG Electronics, the world’s fifth largest mobile phone manufacturer
Arima, a leading Taiwanese manufacturer of mobile terminals
Lenovo, formerly known as the Legend Group, the largest IT corporation in China
Commercially available third party applications for Symbian OS phones rose to 2,954 (end H1 2003 – 1,323 applications) (Source: Symbian research, see Notes to Editors for methodology
£50m rights issue completed to fund accelerated development focused on enhancing Symbian OS as a platform for lower cost, mid-range phones
annualised cost base to rise from c.£70m to c.£100m within 18 months
headcount to rise from c.900 to c.1,200 full-time and contract employees worldwide
David Levin, Chief Executive Officer, Symbian Ltd said:
“Symbian has performed in line with our expectations in the first half of 2004 with five million phones using Symbian OS being shipped to network operators worldwide, taking the installed base of Symbian OS phones to more than 15 million.
The number of Symbian OS phones in development continues to grow; 34 products and variants from 10 Symbian OS licensees are in development. These products are targeted at a wide range of network technologies (GSM / GPRS, CDMA, EDGE and WCDMA), geographical and language specific markets (Europe, North & Latin America, Japan, China), as well as customer segments such as gaming and enterprise users.
Symbian OS continued to attract new licensees with LG Electronics, Arima and Lenovo becoming Symbian OS licensees during the first half of 2004. Symbian OS is attracting growing support from the wider application development community; just under 3,000 commercial third party applications for Symbian OS phones are now available (end H1 2003 – 1,323 applications). (Source: Symbian research, see Notes to Editors)
In May, Symbian launched Symbian Signed, an application certification program that has been endorsed by Orange, T-Mobile, Nokia and Sony Ericsson. This program builds on Symbian’s existing support for application developers by creating even wider commercial opportunities for third party Symbian OS applications and offers faster routes to market that require less cost and effort.
With completion of the £50m rights issue and strong support of its shareholders, Symbian will accelerate development of Symbian OS with a particular focus on evolving Symbian OS to enhance its suitability as a platform for the development of lower cost, mid-range phones.
Symbian looks forward to further phones based on Symbian OS being announced and commencing shipment during the second half of the year. Sales of phones recently announced and to be announced during the second half will largely determine Symbian’s full year performance. As in previous years, sales are likely to be heavily weighted towards the last four months of the year.”
For full details see http://www.symbian.com/press-office/2004/pr040804.html.