Symbian is keeping mobile Microsoft at bay

A SUPER confident Symbian is claiming to have kept the Beast of Redmond at bay with a 65 to 70 per cent share of the smartphone sector, according to CEO, Nigel Clifford.

We wonder whether this is merely the lull before the storm, when Windows Mobile 5.0 begins to mount a real challenge or operators finally get their act together with a standard version of Linux, via the Mobile Linux Forum.

Symbian claims to have shipped 12.3 million units in Q2 2006 compared to 7.8 million units in Q2 2005. Intriguingly, the average royalty rate per phone has risen and revenues increased by 74 per cent to to around $71.7 million (£37.9 million).

The snag is that Symbian is very dependent on its key customers. Nokia accounts for around 70 per cent of sales, while circa 28 per cent of sales come from Japan. It's worth noting that two major Japanese mobile phone suppliers - NEC and Panasonic - are key founders of the Mobile Linux Forum.

To enforce is postion, Symbian introduced a new licensing model (from July 1st 2006), which provides for lower royalty rates. It didn´t specify what the new rate is.

Presently there are some 86 different Symbian-powered devices from 10 different vendors. It would be useful to know how that compares to Windows Mobile 5.0 licencees. µ

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