Symbian publish Q2 figures

10 replies · 5,903 views · Started 18 August 2005

Rafe 18 Aug 2005, 12:31

Symbian released it's quarterly summary of device numbers and operation figures for Q2 2005. 7.8 million devices were sold in the last 3 months to June 2005, and more Symbian devices were sold in the first half of the year than the whole of 2004. There are 54 different phones shipping worldwide and 50 Symbian OS phone models are under development by 11 licensees.

Highlights:

Symbian OS� shipments rise 191% to 14.5m in H1 2005

LONDON, United Kingdom � 18th August 2005 � Symbian Limited today released the following unaudited financial and operational figures for the second quarter and the six months ended 30th June 2005:
H1 2005 Highlights

* Q2 2005 shipments of Symbian OS� phones triple year on year to reach 7.8m (Q2 2004 - 2.6m).

* Total shipments of Symbian OS phones for the first half of the year totalled 14.5m (H1 2004: 5.0m units), a half-year on half-year increase of 191%.

* More Symbian OS phones shipped in H1 2005 than in the whole of 2004.

* 54 separate Symbian OS phone models shipping worldwide from seven licensees (H1 2004 � 23 phone models, 6 licensees).

* 18 new Symbian OS phone models commenced shipping in first half from Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, Motorola, Nokia and Panasonic.

* Symbian OS worldwide installed base reaches more than 39 million phones.

* 16 phones of the 54 Symbian OS phones shipping are designed for 3G W-CDMA networks deployed in Europe and in Japan.

* In addition, 50 Symbian OS phone models are under development by 11 licensees (see Notes to Editors for definitions) (end of H1 2004, 34 phones & variants and 10 licensees).

* 4,122 third party applications for Symbian OS phones commercially are now available, up 64% (end H1 2004 � 2,512 applications) (Source: Symbian research, see Notes to Editors for methodology).

Bassey 19 Aug 2005, 10:15

The mention of all those devices currently in development reminds me, has anyone heard anything from Sony Ericsson on the UIQ front recently? If you exclude the P910, which was just a P900 with a bit more memory, flashier screen and a largely useless thumboard, they haven't produced a new UIQ device in the best part of 2 years now. Previously, prior to an official release, there has been six months of rumour and "unofficial" leaks. Have SE dropped Symbian or are they just taking their time? Any new device would have to include either Wi-Fi or 3G and preferably both and others have already shown just how easy it is to get that wrong if you rush it!

Raven 19 Aug 2005, 12:08

Hi Bassey, long time no see. 😊

Rumour has it that the next UIQ device will be announced this autumn. And that they will start making one-handed UIQ phones similar to S60 handsets (no touch screen).

Rafe 19 Aug 2005, 17:14

Yes I think we can expect to see a family of UIQ devices from Sony Ericsson beforee too long.

langdona 19 Aug 2005, 19:06

I notice that at the end od Q1 they had 11 licensees with 41 products in development and now they still have 11 licensees with 50. However Sendo is no more and Siemens is in the process of being brought out by BenQ, so are there 1 or 2 unannounced new licensees?

Rafe 19 Aug 2005, 21:46

Not sure whether the death of Sendo (29th June) would have registered in time for the end of Q2. There are 15 licensees currently - http://www.symbian.com/about/licensees.html - though Siemens and Sendo can be removed from this list.

However I think we may see at least one licensee announced at the smartphone show / expo in October. I fairly sure some of the companies on the list linked above are not actively developing phones.

* Arima - possibly not
* BenQ - probably not
* Fujitsu - certainly yes
* Panasonic - certainly yes
* Lenovo - probably yes
* LG Electronics - probably yes
* Motorola - certainly yes
* Nokia - certainly yes
* Samsung - almost certainly yes
* Sanyo - possibly?
* Sendo - no
* Sharp - possibly?
* Siemens - no
* Sony Ericsson - certainly yes
* Mitsubushi - probably yes

9 yes? Thought a lot of this is guess work.

langdona 20 Aug 2005, 08:35

Its interesting that you say "BenQ - probably not" as they are taking over Siemens 8.4% ownership of Symbian.

Rafe 20 Aug 2005, 08:59

Last time I spoke to BenQ I was told they were going to concentrate on Windows Mobiles (Pocket PC stuff like P50), and were possibly even looking at finding at OEM for the P31.

I may be wrong of course!

N/A 20 Aug 2005, 11:53

langdona wrote:Its interesting that you say "BenQ - probably not" as they are taking over Siemens 8.4% ownership of Symbian.

The fact that Siemens wants to pay BenQ 250M� to take the Siemens mobile phone division off their hands doesn't mean that BenQ automatically gets the shares of Symbian that Siemens owns; "subject to approval by Symbian's shareholders" says the article you link to.

Note also that the deal is not final (hasn't really happened yet, legally) until both companies owners via extraordinary shareholder meetings & all involved regulators have approved the deal & the final contracts/agreements have been signed. That's due to be concluded by the end of September; "The closing of the deal is expected in the fourth quarter of Siemens� fiscal year 2005."

langdona 20 Aug 2005, 14:05

N/A wrote:The fact that Siemens wants to pay BenQ 250M� to take the Siemens mobile phone division off their hands doesn't mean that BenQ automatically gets the shares of Symbian that Siemens owns; "subject to approval by Symbian's shareholders" says the article you link to.

Yes but why would the Symbain shareholders not approve it? The only point I intended was thet BenQ seemed in their press release to be showing an interest in in acquiring Siemens share of Symbian and why would they do that if they were not interested in producing Symbian products? There may well be other reasons though.

N/A wrote:Note also that the deal is not final (hasn't really happened yet, legally) until both companies owners via extraordinary shareholder meetings & all involved regulators have approved the deal & the final contracts/agreements have been signed. That's due to be concluded by the end of September; "The closing of the deal is expected in the fourth quarter of Siemens� fiscal year 2005."

Also true but its been presented as such a fait accompli that I would be very surprised if it did not happen.

Rafe 20 Aug 2005, 21:37

The Symbian shareholders might not approve it if they didn't think BenQ was going to take an active interest in Symbian.

The politics behind Symbian share ownership get rather complex, and I don't think this is the last we have heard of this issue.