The market for smartphones is heating up and forcing competitors to make smart choices. With lots of players, including Apple going global with its iPhone 3G and HTC’s Google Android-based phone, companies like Nokia-owned Symbian are paying attention.
On Tuesday, Symbian said it shipped 19.6 million mobile phones in its second quarter and 225.9 million since it was formed in 1998. Symbian, based in London, has a strong lead with more than 150 models available through eight vendors, a 30 percent increase from last year. An additional 92 models are in development, according to the company.
Still, is that enough to compete with the 800,000 iPhone 3Gs Apple is selling per week, and the more than six million first-generation iPhones it has already sold since its launch in July 2007? Symbian executives think so.
“In 10 years we’ve achieved an enormous amount,” said Nigel Clifford, Symbian’s chief executive. “Together with our customers we have invented, built and continue to lead the smartphone market.”
Nokia purchased all of Symbian’s shares earlier this year and made Symbian’s operating system free to others, so that alone may put Symbian and Nokia ahead of competitors. Carriers and device makers may choose Symbian over other operating systems such as LiMo, Windows Mobile, or Android.
“It is a very competitive market because there are so many players,” said IDC analyst Ramon Llamas. “We are, however, at a point historically both in the U.S. and worldwide where there is a lot of space to play in. In 2007 there were 120 million smartphones sold worldwide, and if you paint that against 1.2 billion handsets, there is a lot of space for them to play.”
Shipments of mobile phones in North America increased from last quarter, with vendors introducing a number of features in advance of the release of the iPhone 3G….