Symbian smart phone shipments triple

Mobile OS maker still wants to aim lower

By Jo Best, 18 August 2005 17:00

NEWS Smart phone OS firm Symbian has seen shipments of handsets bearing its operating system triple over the last year.

The second quarter of this year saw 7.8 million handsets shipped with the Symbian operating system, up from 2.4 million in Q2 2004.

The first half of this year saw a total of 14.5 million handsets shipped, an increase of 191 per cent on the corresponding period of 2004.

The vendor is also seeing an increase in licensees, with seven handsets firms using its technology, and more 3G phones being developed on the OS - of the 54 Symbian-based handsets, 16 are now designed for W-CDMA.

However, Symbian's CEO, Nigel Clifford, reiterated that there remains work for the company to do to reach mass market penetration.

"Although we are delighted by Symbian's H1 performance, shipments of Symbian OS phones remain small relative to the overall handset market.

"Symbian's strategic focus must remain on driving increased shipments through the adoption of Symbian OS for further handset models, and particularly for the development of lower price, mid-range handsets designed to ship in higher volumes," he said in a statement.

Post your comment

In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.

Log in or create your silicon.com account below

Will not be displayed with your comment

By signing up for this service, you indicate that you agree to our Terms and Conditions and have read and understood our Privacy Policy.

Questions about membership? Find the answers in the Membership FAQ