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Symbian-based smart phones reach 25M mark
By John Blau

Shipments of smart phones based on the Symbian operating system (OS) increased 115 percent in 2004 compared to the previous year, Symbian Ltd. announced at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes.

Last year, 14.4 million Symbian-based smart phones were shipped, compared to 6.8 million in 2003, the London-based company said Monday.

Shipments reached 5.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2004, compared to 2.8 million in the same period a year earlier. Nearly 2.5 million phones were shipped in December alone, Symbian said.

Symbian added 14 new phones in the fourth quarter. As of December 31, total shipments of Symbian-based smart phones reached 25 million, with eight handset manufacturers supplying 41 phones with the OS. Nokia Corp., the world's largest handset manufacturer, owns slightly under 50 percent of Symbian.

In addition to the increased use of the Symbian OS, the number of third-party applications for Symbian devices doubled during 2004, the company said.

The new Symbian 0S version 9 will begin shipping in the second half of 2005, the company said. The new version will feature several enhancements, including improved multimedia and security capabilities, and will take on smart phone OS competitors Microsoft Corp. and PalmSource Inc.

At 3GSM, Symbian also announced an agreement with Renesas Technology Corp., which provides an advanced silicon platform for 3G (third-generation) mobile phones.

Under the agreement, Renesas Technology will port the Symbian OS to its mobile platform, enabling handset manufacturers to create smaller and differentiated handsets while reducing development time and phone costs, Symbian said.

Together with Japan mobile telecom company NTT DoCoMo Inc., Renesas Technology is developing a single-chip that integrates GSM (Global Standard for Mobile Communications), GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and W-CDMA (Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access) technologies, as well as an application processor for improved multimedia performance.

Posted February 15, 2005 03:45 PM | TrackBack (0)