Symbian OS shipments in Q4 2005 reach 10.9m 2005 shipments total 33.9m

3GSM World Congress, BARCELONA, Spain and LONDON, United Kingdom – 14 February 2006 - Symbian Limited, developer and licensor of Symbian OS™, the market-leading operating system for advanced, data-enabled mobile phones today released the following unaudited financial and operational figures for both Q4 2005 and the full year ended 31 December 2005.

Highlights – Full year 2005

• 2005 full year shipments of phones based on Symbian OS totalled 33.9m (2004 – 14.4m); year on year growth of 136%, the fourth consecutive year in which Symbian OS phone shipments have grown by more than 100%
• During 2005, Symbian’s revenues grew to £114.8m – an increase of 73% on 2004
• Cumulative shipments of Symbian OS phones since Symbian’s formation reached 58.8m phones at the end of December 2005
•  At the end of 2005, 60 phone models from 10 Symbian OS licensees were shipping to more than 250 major network operators around the world, of which 36 models commenced shipping in 2005
•  Of the 60 phones models shipping, 22 were shipping to network operators in Japan and across Europe for use on W-CDMA (3G) networks.  Symbian estimates that 35% of global 3G phone shipments in 2005 were based on Symbian OS
  

Highlights – Q4 2005

• Global shipments of Symbian OS phones in Q4 2005 rose to 10.9m; year on year growth of 92% (Q4 2004– 5.7m)
• Ten new Symbian OS phones models commenced shipping in Q4 2005 including:
  
  
  • For NTT DoCoMo’s 3G FOMA network, the F902i manufactured by Fujitsu, the D902i, D880SS and D701iWM manufactured by Mitsubishi, and the SH902i manufactured by Sharp
  • Lenovo P930
  • Nokia N70, Nokia 6708, Nokia 9300i
  • Samsung SGH-D720

• At the end of Q4 2005, 58 phones and variants based on Symbian OS were under development by nine licensees (see Notes to Editors for definitions) (end of Q4 2004 – 40 phones and variants under development by 12 licensees)
• Of the 58 phones in development, seven phones have been launched but are not yet commercially available including the Nokia Eseries mobile devices E60, E61 and E71, the Nokia Nseries mobile devices N71, N80 and N92 and Sony Ericsson’s P990 and M600 – all of which are the first phones to be based on Symbian OS v9.
• At the end of Q4 2005, 4,588 third party applications for Symbian OS phones were commercially available (end Q4 2004 – 4,001 applications) (Source: Symbian research, see Notes to Editors for methodology)
• With escalating unit shipments, Symbian has made substantial progress in Q4 2005 to ensure that Symbian OS is the ideal choice for handset manufacturers developing advanced mobile phones for a mass market. On 8 February:
  
  

  • Symbian announced the first 3G single-core reference design in collaboration with Freescale and S60 aimed at lowering build costs for mid-tier 3G phones and lowering development time by up to 50%

  • Symbian announced new alternatives to its software license pricing model in order to encourage customers to accelerate development of Symbian OS phones. The new pricing models are expected to drive higher volumes by enabling licensees to target lower cost phone market segments
    

Chief Executive Commentary

Nigel Clifford, Chief Executive Officer, Symbian Ltd today said:

Operational Review

“Symbian continued to make good progress in Q4 2005, with more than 10.9m phones based on Symbian OS shipping to retailers and to more than 250 major network operators around the world.  In 2005 as a whole, Symbian OS licensees shipped 33.9 million phones, taking the total shipments of Symbian OS phones since Symbian’s formation to 58.8 million.  Q4 2005 also saw 10 new models launched and we have a further 58 Symbian OS phones in development by nine of our licensees. 
In 2005, after four consecutive years of over 100% year on year growth of Symbian OS phone shipments, Symbian has achieved break-even for the first time.  This milestone further demonstrates Symbian’s leadership in the rapid growth of the open phone market and commitment to driving new commercial opportunities for handset manufacturers, network operators and partners in the consumer and enterprise space.”

Market

“While shipments of Symbian OS phones continue to increase, the number remains small relative to the size of the overall handset market. Symbian’s strategy remains focused on driving deeper and wider adoption of Symbian OS both for advanced mobile devices and for lower cost, higher volume phones.  We have made a number of steps recently, including license price adjustments, a 3G reference design announcement and product developments, which are all supportive of our ambition to address volume markets.

Symbian OS maintains its position as the industry’s leading operating system for phones designed for 3G networks.  At the end of Q4 2005, 22 Symbian OS phones (38% of the Symbian OS models shipping) were developed for 3G networks, across Europe and Asia.  These include the Nokia 6680, which market researchers IDC recognised in October as the world’s best selling 3G phone. 

Symbian’s progress in the Japanese market continues.  Since NTT DoCoMo made public its selection of Symbian OS as a common operating system for handsets designed for its 3G FOMA network in November 2004, Symbian OS licensees Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, Motorola, Nokia and Sharp Corporation have announced a total of 22 Symbian OS phones in the Japanese market.

In line with Symbian’s strategy for entering the mass market, on 8th February Symbian announced a new alternatives to its software licence pricing model in order to encourage its licensees to accelerate development of Symbian OS phones. The revised licensing model is expected to drive higher volumes by enabling licensees to target lower cost phone market segments.”

Technology

“Symbian has made substantial progress in Q4 2005 to ensure that Symbian OS is the ideal OS choice for handset manufacturers developing mobile phones for both the advanced and mid-tier markets.  In September, Symbian delivered to its licensees the latest release in the Symbian OS v9 family.  Symbian continues to deliver incremental enhancements to Symbian OS v9 in line with market requirements such as faster start-up times, improved application performance and smaller memory requirements, many of which specifically address Symbian’s stated aim of targeting the mass market. Other areas of enhancement include development tools for creating Symbian OS variants, which make it faster for handset manufacturers to create operator-specific customisations.  Backward compatibility of new versions of Symbian OS with previous versions from v9.0 onwards enables easy migration to new versions for phone vendors, technology providers and 3rd party software providers.

On 8 February 2006 Symbian announced the first single-core 3G reference design, in collaboration with Freescale and S60.  This reference design provides a pre-integrated single core chip solution that is expected to provide handset manufacturers and operators the first real opportunity to address the mid tier 3G phone market segments by reducing development time up to 50%.”

Outlook

“Symbian has the leading position in the open phone operating system market, making it is well placed to benefit from the ever wider deployment of 3G networks and from network operators’ push to offer more of their subscribers a broader range of commercial, value-added content and services.  Symbian is working hard with licensees and the wider Symbian ecosystem to enable the adoption of Symbian OS into lower cost devices.  We look forward to making continued progress in 2006 and beyond.”

Symbian Limited is holding a press conference today at 14.00 CET at Media Zone, Hall 2 Level 0, Fira de Barcelona, at 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. If you wish to attend this press conference or have enquiries about this press release, please call Anatolie Papas on +44 7810 697306 or e-mail press@symbian.com. To receive Symbian news alerts directly to your inbox, please register online: 

- Ends -

Symbian Limited Q4 2005 results
Unaudited Financial and Operational Highlights

	Q4 2005	Q3 2005	Q4 2004
Symbian OS Units	10.89m	8.54m	5.68m
Average Royalty / Unit *	US$5.2	US$5.0	US$5.7
Royalty GP% *	86%	86%	84%
Turnover (£m)	£'m	£'m	£'m
Royalties *	30.7	23.8	17.5
Consulting Services	2.9	4.0	4.1
Partnering & Other	1.0	0.8	2.0
Total	34.6	28.6	23.6
	End Q4 2005	End Q3 2005	End Q4 2004
No. of products in market	60	60	41
No. of licensees with products in market	10	8	8
No. of products in development	58	56	40
No. of licensees with products in development	9	11	12
* Royalties comprise Symbian OS & UIQ

 

Symbian Limited 2005 results
Unaudited Financial and Operational Highlights

	2005	2004	2003
Symbian OS Units	33.95m	14.38m	6.67m
Average Royalty / Unit *	US$5.14	US$5.72	US$6.24
Royalty GP% *	85%	84%	84%
Turnover (£m)	£’m	£’m	£’m
Royalties *	96.1	45.2	25.5
Consulting Services	14.8	17.5	17.1
Partnering & Other	3.9	3.8	2.8
Total	114.8	66.5	45.4
* Royalties comprise Symbian OS & UIQ

These results do not constitute statutory accounts. They were prepared under the same accounting policies stated in the lasted audited accounts of the Company, which have been filed with Companies House and may be obtained from the Company Secretary, Symbian Limited, 2-6 Boundary Row, Southwark, London, SE1 8HP, United Kingdom.

Notes to Editors

1. Definitions and Additional Information
   
   Royalty Revenue – Symbian receives a royalty on each phone based on Symbian OS shipped by licensees. From Symbian OS v7.0 onwards the royalty has been set at $7.25 per unit for the first 2 million units shipped by a licensee and $5 per unit thereafter. From v9.0 onwards after 1 July 2006, licensees are being offered an additional pricing model based on either (a) a fraction of the trade price of devices shipping; or (b) an annual volume ratchet pricing structure, which is reset annually upon the anniversary of the licensee’s election of this pricing alternative. 
   
   Symbian also receives additional royalty revenue for devices shipping with the UIQ user interface supplied by Symbian’s wholly-owned subsidiary, UIQ Technology AB.
   
   Royalty Gross Profit - Symbian in-sources certain technologies when either:
   
   i) there is already an appropriate industry standard developed by another party (e.g. Java from Sun); or
   ii) technology can be more efficiently provided by an outside supplier (e.g. WAP / web browsers; personal computer connectivity),
   and, in both cases, where Symbian considers that such technologies should form part of Symbian OS to satisfy market and licensees’ requirements.
   
   Consulting Revenue – Symbian undertakes consultancy activities to assist its licensees implement Symbian OS in new handsets. Symbian receives revenue to cover costs (including full overhead recovery) but, since such activities are primarily in support of licensees adoption of Symbian OS, Symbian does not always seek a commercial gross profit on such consulting revenues. The level of consulting revenue will fluctuate depending upon: (a) the volume of new engagements with licensees; (b) the ability of licensees to develop new Symbian OS phones without the assistance of Symbian; and (c) the ability of Symbian Competence Centers to provide support for licensee product development.
   Partnering & Other Revenue – Symbian derives a further revenue stream from training activities, partner activities (including the Symbian Platinum Partner Program) and trade shows. These activities are designed to promote Symbian OS and are therefore priced to enable cost recovery only.
   
   Products in Development – Symbian defines a product in development on the basis of the criteria below:
   
   
   • a Symbian OS licensee has a significant development team engaged on the project
   • there is a clearly defined plan to take the product through development to shipping
   • the product is anticipated to ship in commercial volumes
     
     
2. Number of Symbian OS Applications
   Symbian tracks the number of commercially available Symbian OS applications. This is done through surveying the applications offered for sale by a wide range of on-line, commercial distributors of Symbian OS applications.
   To be included in the count of Symbian OS applications, an application must be offered for sale by a company, not an individual.
   
   Applications which are offered for sale but which do not meet these criteria are regarded as "Shareware". Symbian maintains separate counts for "Shareware", “Freeware" and "Open Source" applications.
   Only applications written for, or specifically shown to work on, Symbian OS phones are included in the Symbian OS application count. The count includes applications written using any of the wide variety of programming languages supported by Symbian OS, including C++, Java (pJava or MIDP), AppForge Crossfire and OPL.
   
   The number of Symbian OS applications does NOT include Java MIDlets that have not been developed specifically for, nor have been explicitly validated as running on, Symbian OS phones. It is therefore likely that there are many additional Java MIDlet applications that will run on Symbian OS phones.
   
   
3.  About Symbian Limited
   Symbian is a software licensing company that develops and licenses Symbian OS, the market leading open operating system for advanced, data-enabled mobile phones, also known as smartphones.
   
   Symbian licenses Symbian OS to the world’s leading handset manufacturers and has built close co-operative business relationships with leading companies across the mobile industry.  At the end of 2005, 34 million Symbian OS phones were sold worldwide to over 250 major network operators, bringing the total number of Symbian OS phones shipped to almost 60 million at the of 2005.
   
   Symbian has its headquarters in London, United Kingdom with offices in the United States, Europe (England and Sweden (UIQ Technology AB)), Israel.

Media Enquiries

Anatolie Papas Global PR Manager Symbian Ltd +44 20 7154 1383 - +44 7810 697 306 press@symbian.com

Chris Barrie Citigate Dewe Rogerson +44 207 638 9571 - +44 7968 727 289