Symbian has revealed that over 20 million Symbian Smartphones have shipped in Japan as of 31 March 2007.
Symbian OS is the market-leading, open mobile operating system for Smartphones. Since the first 3G Symbian Smartphones – the FOMA F2051 and FOMA F2102, manufactured by Fujitsu – began shipping in Japan in 2003, there has been a steady increase in Symbian OS-based models in Japan. In 2004, there were six Symbian OS-based models manufactured by Fujitsu and Nokia. In 2005, there were 14 models from Fujitsu, Nokia, Mitsubishi, Sharp, and Motorola, which soared to 44 models from six handset vendors including Sony Ericsson in 2006. As of May 2007, 55 Symbian OS based models have been shipped.
It took three years to reach the first10 million Symbian Smartphones and less than one year to reach the next 10 million. This growth was driven by the remarkable innovation from the advanced 3G mobile market in Japan, as well as the capabilities of Symbian OS in reducing time-to-market and meeting the requirements of handset vendors and network operators.
Symbian offers functionality, security and flexibility that the mobile phone market demands, fast says Kiyohito Nagata, Vice President Managing Director, Product Department at NTT DoCoMo, Inc.
Haruhiko Hisa, President of Symbian Japan adds:
We have reached the mark of shipping over 20 million Symbian Smartphones as a result of the support we have been given by all our network operators, handset manufacturers and partners to become a more open and versatile OS. Going forward, we shall focus on contributing to the development of high function handsets at lower build costs as well as continuing to fulfill our important role of enlarging the mobile phone market.