Symbian recently released some numbers

Symbian recently released some numbers regarding its mobile device operating system, seen mostly on converged mobile devices - a.k.a. smart phones, devices that combine a mobile phone with intelligent, PDA-like functionality.

The company says:

* Shipments of Symbian OS phones in the second quarter of 2005   were three times as high as they were in the second quarter of   2004, reaching 7.8 million shipments. * More Symbian OS phones shipped in the first half of 2005 (14.5   million) than in all of 2004. * The worldwide Symbian OS installed base is now more than 39   million phones.

Most enterprises in the U.S. have probably not heard much about Symbian, the software licensing company that developed the Symbian OS. The company was created in 1998 by Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia and Psion.

Known mostly for consumer mobile phones, in the U.S. the Symbian OS has 24% of the market for converged mobile devices, compared with 21.3% for the Palm OS and 9.2% for Microsoft (both Pocket PC Phone Edition and Smartphone OS are included in their numbers). Worldwide, Microsoft takes second place, with 12.7% of the market, compared to first-place Symbian's 55.9% and Palm OS's 6.3%.

So why should you care about Symbian? Because of Symbian OS v9 <http://www.symbian.com/technology/product_v9.html>, which the company launched in February. Devices with Symbian OS v9, including Nokia's N91, will be launched to the world in the second half of the year. Symbian says the new version "implements a more robust security model to support enterprise and network operators' provision of secure commercial services." Enhancements include network service, device management, communication infrastructure, Java, personal area networking and application framework features. In essence, the Symbian OS will be provided on devices that will appeal to business customers.

That puts them in the crosshairs of Microsoft, which has business customers in its camp. Whether Symbian can make the crossover from consumer phones into enterprise-class devices will be the compelling story for the rest of 2005. According to an IDC report, "Symbian, its stakeholders, and its licensees clearly know how to build mobile phones for consumer consumption, but legitimacy in the form of enterprise-class devices, applications, services, and support is still lacking."

Microsoft will be helped in this space when it releases Windows Mobile Version 5.0 (announced in May), codenamed Magneto (anyone else think it's odd that they named it after a super-villain?). The new version will move away from separate Pocket PC, Smartphone and Portable Media Center platforms <http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/about/tours.mspx> and instead focus on different experiences (voice, data and multimedia). IDC says that Microsoft "possesses an advantage in the minds of enterprises considering mobility," given its dominance in the computing world. As companies look to mobilize their applications beyond personal information and e-mail, IDC says that Microsoft should be in a good position.

For those who wonder about PalmSource as an operating system, IDC is less than enthusiastic. "The platform is falling behind its competitors in the race for consumer and enterprise adoption," IDC says, and even though the PalmOne Treo devices have captured attention, fewer than 1 million units sold in 2004, which represents only 5.5% of the converged device market.

According to IDC forecasts, by 2009 Symbian will control 59.4% of the worldwide converged mobile device market, with Microsoft Windows Mobile at 17.3% and Linux-based devices at 16.8%. The Palm OS will be somewhere at about 3% market share in 2009, IDC says.