Symbian device growth, while still modest in the context of the overall mobile handset market, is increasing rapidly, according to detailed figures released by the company.

Symbian reported shipments of 2.68 million units in the first half of 2003, almost 12 times the 0.23 million units shipped in the same period in 2002. This was driven by new Symbian-based models such as Sony Ericsson’s P800 and Nokia’s 7650 and 3650.

This growth pushed Symbian’s revenue to 21.1m pounds ($33.3m) in the half, up 121% over the previous year. Just under half of Symbian’s sales now come from royalties, with the remainder coming largely from consulting services to its licensees.

The growth in Symbian handset shipments has been in parallel with a consummate decrease in the price of a Symbian OS license. From an average royalty per unit of $13.50 during the second quarter of 2002, Symbian has now set a base figure of $7.25 per unit for the first two million devices shipped by a licensee, dropping to $5 thereafter.

Symbian VP communications, Peter Bancroft, is confident the company remains on track to meet its internal targets, with products from 26 Symbian-based devices from nine licensees currently in development, in addition to the 10 products (some of which are variants) already on the market.

When [CEO] David Levin started he was looking at one billion units a year. the first target we reached was a million in a year, the next is target is a million a month and once we reach a million a week it starts to get interesting, said Bancroft.

If Symbian can achieve these aims, royalty revenue alone could rise to over $500m, extrapolating from its current figures. What is more, margins can be expected to be high.

Symbian’s disclosure would appear to lay down the gauntlet to Microsoft. While it is unclear what Microsoft charges for its own comparable mobile operating systems, Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PCs and Windows Powered Smartphone 2002, the company appears ready to sacrifice its OS license revenues in the interest of mass market deployment.

In May, the company launched a stripped-down version of its core embedded platform, known as Windows CE .NET 4.2 Core, at a bargain price of around $3. This was considerably lower than the price of the equivalent CE .NET Professional license, which sells for about $15.

Symbian claims it is not worried by any attempts by Microsoft to undercut it on price in order to gain traction with handset manufacturers.

That would be the case if we thought the decision to go with an OS was entirely based on price, said Bancroft. But talk to anyone in the industry and you’ll know that that is not the case.

Source: Computerwire