The first half of this year has brought outstanding success for Symbian. During the ten years of its existence a total of 225.9 million Symbian smartphones have been sold, in the form of 249 handsets. The second quarter of this year is a serious success for the company from many points of view. First, the 19.6 million shipped phones mean a 5 percent increase, compared to the results from a year ago, and second, the number of handset under development has increased to 92, which is not only 48 percent more than last year, but it's also the highest value during the lifetime of the company. During the second quarter 8 cell phone manufacturers, including the 5 largest one, have sold 159 different models, most of them being based on Symbian OS v9. Although the licencing fee per handset has decreased due to the new pricing structure, but the income from consultation fees have increased to 9 million pounds (76% up).
Besides the sale numbers, the number of available applications has also increased. While a year ago there were 7.888 applications available, this year this number has increased with 25%, to a total of 9.834 officially available software. At the 10th anniversary of Symbian's existence Nokia, owner of 52 percent of the company's share, has announced that they want to buy the whole company. This process is expected to come to an end until the end of the year. Meanwhile the Symbian Foundation has been founded, having AT&T, LG Electronics, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, Samsung Electronics, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone as members. Symbian Foundation will start to officially operate after the acquisition ends, having as a goal the creation of a united, open Symbian user interface without license fees.
Translated by Szaszati
