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Symbian reports first half and second quarter results for 2008
Written by Symbian
Tuesday, 02 September 2008
LONDON,
United Kingdom – 2 September 2008 – Symbian Limited,
the market leader in open operating systems for mobile phones, today released
the following unaudited financial and operational figures for the second quarter
ended 30 June 2008:
Highlights – Q2 2008
as at 30 June 2008
225.9 million cumulative Symbian OS™
units shipped across 249 different phone models since the formation of
Symbian
During Q2, 19.6 million Symbian
mobile phones shipped to consumers worldwide an increase of 5% on Q2 2007. As
expected, average royalty per unit declined as licensees migrate onto v9 of
Symbian OS with a licensing pricing structure designed to significantly increase
market adoption
At the end of Q2, seven Symbian
licensees had 92 phone models in development, an increase of 48% on Q2 2007 (62
models) - the highest ever achieved
In Q2, eight handset vendors
including the world’s five leading vendors, were shipping 159 mobile phone
models, the majority of which were based on Symbian OS v9, including the latest
release of Symbian OS v9.3, optimized for convergence
14 new models commenced shipment in
Q2 including the Motorola Z10, Nokia E71, Nokia N78 and Nokia 6220, Samsung
G810, Sony Ericsson G700 and Sony Ericsson G900, and several handsets for the
NTT DOCOMO FOMA™ network including the SO906i, F906i and
SH906iTV
76% growth in consulting services
from £5.1 million in H1 2007 to £9.0 million in H1 2008 driven by a demand for
Symbian services resulting from a broader and deeper range of customer mobile
phone products in the pipeline
Symbian announced the ‘Symbian
Partner Network’ (SPN) program, replacing the Platinum Program. The SPN offers
new benefits including improved access to online developer resources, and a
lower membership fee
9,834 third-party Symbian
applications are now commercially available, a 25% increase on 30 June 2007
(7,888 applications). Source: Symbian research, see Notes to
Editors
On 24th June, marking Symbian’s 10
year anniversary, Nokia announced its intent to acquire the share of Symbian
Limited that it did not already own (approximately 52%). The transaction is
expected to be completed during the second half of 2008 and is subject to
regulatory approval and customary closing conditions
Simultaneously, industry leaders
including AT&T, LG Electronics, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, Samsung
Electronics, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone
announced plans to establish the Symbian Foundation, which will combine Symbian
OS with S60, UIQ and MOAP(S) to create the world’s leading unified, royalty free
mobile software platform. The Foundation is expected to start operating during
the first half of 2009, subject to the closing of the acquisition of Symbian Ltd
by Nokia
Nigel Clifford,
Symbian CEO, commented:
“We are pleased to report that a total of 19.6
million Symbian mobile phones were shipped over 250 major network operators
globally in the quarter. Symbian celebrated its tenth anniversary at the end of
June, with a cumulative total of 225.9 million Symbian mobile phones shipped
since formation. This number is based on nearly 250 models, designed and shipped
by the world’s leading handset manufacturers.
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.
We’ve
worked hard to extend the close collaboration with our customers and operators
and have built a strong product pipeline. Our highly innovative product roadmap
will ensure that Symbian OS continues to lead in the high-end converged device
and smartphone markets whilst its penetration into the mid-range segments
increases. As proof of this, there are now 159 Symbian phone models available in
the global market from eight handset vendors – a rise of 30% over last year –
and another 92 phone models are in development. This is reflected in an
increased demand for consulting services by 76%.”
Total Symbian phone
models shipping at end H1 2008
End H1
2008
End H1
2007
YoY
change
Number of Symbian phone models in the
market
159
122
30%
Number of Symbian phone models in the
market since formation of Symbian
249
187
33%
Number of licensees with Symbian phone
in the market
8
8
Number of Symbian phone models in
development
92
62
48%
Q2 device shipments
– varied models for varied markets
14 new models
commenced shipment in Q2 with a total of 27 new models shipping in H1. Q2 new
models include the Motorola Z10, Nokia E71, Nokia N78 and Nokia 6220, Samsung
G810, Sony Ericsson G700 and Sony Ericsson G900, and several handsets for the
Japanese market including NTT DOCOMO’s FOMA SO906i, F906i and SH906iTV. These
cover a broad range of market segments and form factors including high-end
converged devices, smartphones and mid-range mobile phones and half are GPS
enabled. The majority of these new phones are based on Symbian OS v9, including
some of which are based on Symbian’s latest product offering, Symbian OS v9.3,
and are currently shipping in Japan and Europe.
Accelerating
innovation and application development
Symbian
Ready
In May 2008, Symbian
launched the Symbian Ready technology validation program, designed to offer
customers direct access to pre-validated ecosystem solutions. In addition to
helping ecosystem partners make the most of Symbian OS technologies by
developing in the most efficient way, Symbian Ready also offers ecosystem
partners the opportunity to showcase their solutions to handset manufacturers
and network operators through a variety of co-marketing initiatives such as the
Symbian Ready Directory and promotion on Symbian Developer
Network.
Symbian Ready is an
umbrella program, comprising two strands at launch – Symbian Ready AUTO and
Symbian Ready VERO. In Q2 2008, 6 ecosystem companies are undergoing validation
through the Symbian Ready program, including, for Symbian Ready VERO, three of
the top four NAND vendors are either validated for Symbian OS or engaged in
validation.
Symbian
Partner Network
Symbian launched its
new partner program, the Symbian Partner Network (SPN). This new program
replaces the Platinum Program and focuses on harnessing innovation by further
strengthening the ecosystem, helping its members and customers to build
compelling devices and solutions more quickly and at a lower cost. Key benefits
to the SPN include enhanced marketing and business development opportunities as
well as improved access to online developer support resources, including
technology roadmaps and other documentation. Membership is now available at a
new competitive annual membership fee of US$1,500.
Symbian Partner
Network, along with other market leaders and visionaries including customers,
media and analysts, will come together to help shape the future of mobile at the
annual Smartphone Show in London, UK
on 21st - 22nd October.
Symbian Foundation
announcement
Symbian Limited
remains focused on further strengthening the development and adoption of its
open mobile platform with a vision of becoming the most widely used software
platform on the planet. On 24th June, Nokia announced its intent to acquire the
remaining Symbian shares that it didn’t already own and simultaneously
announced, with other industry leaders, plans to establish the Symbian
Foundation - major steps that follow our vision and mark the next stage in the
evolution of Symbian OS.
Through the Symbian
Foundation, mobile leaders plan to unify the Symbian software platform with user
interface software and provide this new platform under a royalty-free license.
The initiative is supported by all our major shareholders and Symbian
management. Membership of this non-profit foundation will be open to all
organizations and plans for the foundation have already received wide support
from many industry leaders, with initial board members including five leading
handset manufacturers (LG Electronics, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung Electronics and
Sony Ericsson), leading operators (AT&T, NTT DOCOMO and Vodafone) and
hardware manufacturers (STMicroelectronics and TI).
Nigel
Clifford continued, “Ten years ago, Symbian
was established by far sighted players to offer an advanced open operating
system and software skills to the whole mobile industry. Our vision is for
Symbian OS to become the most widely used software platform on the planet and
indeed today it leads its market by any measure. The Symbian Foundation is a
bold new step to achieve that vision by embracing a complete and proven
platform, offered in an open and royalty-free way, designed to stimulate
innovation which is at the heart of everything we do.
The mobile industry
coming together to create the Symbian Foundation will mark the biggest
contribution to an open community we believe has ever been made, with software
assets of around 40 million lines of code being
contributed."
Symbian
Outlook
“For the past ten
years, helping our customers succeed has been our number one priority. We
believe we have remained number one because we're the only company in our
industry that is built from the ground up to create what might be described as a
‘pure, open mobile OS’ for the good of the industry in consultation with our
partners and licensees.
Achieving 225.9 million devices is tremendous
success but we know that others are targeting this market. However, we believe
that the combination of Symbian’s unrivalled product offering, development
roadmap, ecosystem and experience in the open mobile market now supplemented
with the future support of the Symbian Foundation, Symbian OS should continue to
lead the market. We’re pleased with our progress and very excited about
pioneering the next wave of mobile
innovation.”
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