MobileMonday Global

^{Riding on Nokia’s coat tails} Symbian leaves Microsoft further behind

Symbian’s global share increased to 50 percent from 30 percent in the same quarter a year earlier in mobile device market. According to the fresh numbers from Canalys, Symbian’s share was also up sequentially, from 41 percent in Q2 2004.

Microsoft remains in the number two position with 20 percent share, ahead of PalmSource on 17 percent.

“Symbian’s position in most regions is shaped primarily by Nokia’s smart phone performance,” said Canalys analyst Rachel Lashford.

US relies on its own operating systems

“In Japan, however, it is Fujitsu’s success that underpins most of the operating system vendor’s 78 percent mobile device share. In the US only 6 percent of the mobile devices shipped in Q3 2004 ran the Symbian OS, compared to 43 percent for PalmSource and 25 percent for Microsoft.”

While Symbian leads overall, it only plays in the voice-centric part of the market. For data-centric devices Microsoft led in the quarter with 45 percent share globally, up from 40 percent a year earlier, with PalmSource on 29 percent, down from 45 percent in Q3 2003.

Canalys provides comprehensive tracking and analysis of the markets for all types of “smart” pocket-sized mobile device in an integrated worldwide research programme. Its market share estimates include smart phones like the Sony Ericsson P910, palmOne Treo 650, Orange SPV c500 and Nokia 7610, wireless handhelds such as the RIM BlackBerry 72xx and 77xx ranges, T-Mobile MDA II and HP iPAQ h6315, and standalone handhelds (without integral wide-area wireless capabilities), for example the palmOne Tungsten T5 and HP iPAQ h4150.

Source: Canalys; "Mobile device market: feature phones, smart phones, handhelds, wireless hendhelds