12.3m Symbian OS shipments in Q2 2006

"Symbian continued to lead the smartphone market in Q2 2006, with more than 12.3 million Symbian smartphones shipping worldwide, bringing the total shipment of Symbian smartphones since the Company's formation to over 82.8 million. During Q2, Symbian's revenues grew to £41.2 million - an increase of 54% on Q2 2005.

New phone models distributed globally
Continuing our commitment to reach all markets, a total of 23 new phone models based on Symbian OS started shipping in Q2 2006. They included new Symbian smartphones in Japan, USA, China, Europe and the rest of the world.

Leadership in 3G
Symbian underlined its 3G focus with 15 of the 23 new Symbian phone models that commenced shipping in Q2 2006 designed for 3G W-CDMA networks. In Q2 2006 92% of the worldwide 3G smartphone market was powered by Symbian OS (source: Rachel Lashford Canalys, July 2006).

Emerging smartphone lifestyle
As the smartphone category broadens across regions and into the mass market, Symbian continues to offer choice and differentiation, including support for multiple user interface options to respond to network operator and diverse regional market requirements.

I am very pleased to see growth this period in the range and variety of services made possible by phones based on Symbian OS. For example in Japan, NTT DoCoMo's FOMA SH902iS uses face recognition via the phone's built-in camera for secure authentication, allowing the phone to be trusted for a range of m-commerce transactions. The recently-introduced remote record function on Sky by mobile, a streaming TV delivery and online real-time betting service for mobile phones, adds the ability to program a Sky+ personal video recorder remotely. The announced Nokia 5500 Sport contains a specialized software package that enables sports enthusiasts to monitor, record and store their exercise activities on the go including, for example, speed and distance, steps taken and calories burned. These and other services are contributing to a new smartphone lifestyle, as smartphones are enhancing the way people work and enjoy their leisure time.

New product release
At our Japan Summit in July we announced the availability of our latest Symbian OS release, version 9.3. Symbian OS v9.3 builds on the success of the v9 family as a robust, secure, open and standards-based OS for smartphones. It includes enhancements to phone performance and memory management resulting in more responsive applications and phone features. It offers new hardware support including integrated WiFi. Complete with this release are comprehensive development tools for creating new phone variants based on Symbian OS, reducing the time taken to customize phones for network operators and for targeting different market segments.

Symbian customers are currently developing phones based on Symbian OS v9.3, with product launches anticipated in 2007.

Outlook
Symbian remains the leading open OS developer in the mobile market. This market is undergoing rapid change with the convergence of network technologies (including fixed mobile convergence) and of media provision.

We are delighted to be supporting our licensees to deliver compelling products such as the Nokia 3250 music device, which has shipped over 1 million units in less than four months since its launch, and the announced Sony Ericsson Walkman W950. We expect innovation to continue apace as new networks and device technologies enable new services, many of which will be on display at the Symbian Smartphone Show, taking place in London, 17th and 18th October.

Looking forward, with the new range of new Symbian OS v9 phones soon coming to market and with the availability of our new scalable pricing options from July 06 onwards, I expect to see an acceleration of Symbian smartphones in the lower cost device market segments, driving higher volumes of exciting phones and services." www.symbian.com

Total Symbian smartphone models shipping at end H1/Q2