Symbian-based phone shipments increase 85%, vendor claims

The company said that five million Symbian-based phones shipped worldwide in the first half of 2004 compared to 2.7 million for the first half of last year, or an increase of about 85 percent.

In addition the company reported second-quarter revenues of 13.7 million British pounds, compared to 11.9 million pounds for the same quarter a year ago. Year-to-date revenues were 26.6 million pounds compared to 21.1 million pounds for the first half of 2003.

Symbian CEO David Levin said the company was evolving the Symbian OS with the aim of making it an attractive platform for low-cost and mid-range devices. Besides increased revenues, he said that the company would utilize additional investments made during the first half of the year by its existing owners.

A number of owners purchased additional shares of Symbian in a successful effort to prevent Nokia from gaining control of the company.

The company reported that 34 separate phones based on its platform were under development by 10 licensees. Recent market studies have shown that Symbian is, by far, the leading platform for mobile phones worldwide, with platforms from Microsoft and PalmSource trailing behind.