Symbian Limited today released the following unaudited financial and operational figures for the third quarter ended 30th September 2004:

Q3 2004 Operational Highlights

  Global shipments of Symbian OS-based phones reached 3.70m (Q3 2003: 1.23m units), a year-on-year increase of 201%
  Symbian OS licensees are now shipping 29 different phone models to network operators in Japan and throughout GSM/GPRS territories worldwide
  Total installed base of Symbian OS phones is now more than 19.2m units
  Six new products based on Symbian OS began shipping in Q3 2004 (Q3 2003: 3 products)

• two Fujitsu phones for NTT DoCoMo's 3G FOMA network, (one implementing the FeliCA e-commerce standard, the other targeting more mature users)
• Nokia 6260 for GSM / GPRS markets, Nokia 6620 for the Americas market
• SonyEricsson P910 for GSM / GPRS markets, SonyEricsson P910c Chinese language variant

  Commercially available third party applications for Symbian OS phones rose to 3,254 (end Q3 2003 - 1,723 applications) (Source: Symbian research, see Notes to Editors for methodology)
  Since quarter-end, BenQ P30 (tri-band GSM / GPRS), Motorola A1000 (3G product for Europe & Asia), Nokia 6670 (tri-band GSM / GPRS), Nokia 9500 (tri-band GSM / EDGE / WiFi) and Sony Ericsson P910a for the Americas GSM markets have all commenced commercial shipment.
  38 phones and variants are in development by 10 Symbian OS licensees for all network technologies (Q3 2003, 31 phones and variants & 9 licensees) (see Notes to Editors for definitions)

Chief Executive's Commentary

Operational performance

Symbian continues to progress in line with our expectations, with 3.7 million phones based on Symbian OS shipping in the third quarter to retailers and to more than 200 network operators, taking the annual run rate of Symbian OS unit shipments in the past 12 months to 11.45 million phones.

At the end of the quarter 38 Symbian OS phones and variants were under development by 10 Symbian OS licensees. These products are targeted at all types of network technologies (GSM / GPRS, CDMA, EDGE and W-CDMA), a wide range of geographical and language specific markets (Europe, North & Latin America, Japan, China), as well as customer segments such as enterprise, imaging and gaming.

Symbian is encouraged by the continuing commercial roll-out of 3G networks worldwide. Symbian OS licensees have now shipped ten 3G Symbian OS phones to network operators across Europe and Asia. In addition, we are delighted to report that Motorola has reached an agreement to supply NTT DoCoMo with Symbian OS-based 3G products whilst Nokia will supply Vodafone KK with its first 3G Symbian OS product.

Symbian OS Ecosystem

The Symbian Ecosystem continues to grow, as evidenced by the Symbian Expo - the smartphone show held in London in October. The Symbian Expo brought together companies from every segment of the Symbian OS smartphone market, with sponsorship from leading mobile industry companies - Vodafone, IBM, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Texas Instruments and Carphone Warehouse. The show attracted more than 2,500 mobile industry professionals who attended keynote sessions and visited an exhibition show floor featuring more than 150 companies.

Symbian OS also continues to see growing support from application developers with more 3,254 commercial third party applications for Symbian OS phones now available (end Q3 2003 - 1,723 applications) (Source: Symbian research, see Notes to Editors for methodology).

Market

Attaining an actual run rate of 11.45m units over the last twelve months and achieving clear market leadership with an installed base of 19.2 million Symbian OS phones represents a significant achievement for Symbian. However these numbers remain modest in the context of the overall phone market.

Symbian's objective is to maintain its market leadership as the market segment grows rapidly. Symbian is focusing on ensuring the adoption of Symbian OS for use as the platform for development of mid-tier, higher volume phones. Symbian is investing significantly to ensure Symbian OS is increasingly competitive with in-house operating systems currently used by Symbian OS licensees to build mid-tier phones. As part of this strategy, Symbian is working with partners to develop reference designs for Symbian OS phones. Reference designs pre-integrate Symbian OS with phone hardware, resulting in accelerated time to market and reduced development costs, enabling Symbian OS licensees to focus their development efforts on differentiating features and technologies rather than on low level integration. In October, Symbian and Intel announced a joint development agreement for a Symbian OS reference design for 3G phones.

Outlook

As in previous years, Symbian's full year performance will be significantly influenced by sales of Symbian OS licensee phones made during the fourth quarter.

Unaudited Financial and Operational Highlights

* Royalties include Symbian OS & UIQ
** Cash at bank and in hand is prior to fund-raising announced 7th July 2004