Symbian Ltd., the British supplier of the leading smartphone OS, won't be going public anytime soon, according to Reuters. Industry speculation got worked up after the successful IPO by mobile-Linux vendor Trolltech of Norway earlier this month. But Symbian chief executive Nigel Clifford told Reuters: "We don't require any further investments...so there aren't any drivers to do an initial public offering at the moment." Clifford said he was basing his comments on a recent meeting of the full Symbian board.
By way of background, the Symbian OS controlled 65% of the global smartphone market in the first quarter, according to Gartner, followed by Linux with a 26% share and Windows Mobile with 4%. Symbian licensees include Ericsson, Matsushita, Nokia, Panasonic, and Siemens.
Shipments of devices running the Symbian OS rose by 73% in Q1, to reach 11.7 million units, Symbian said in May. At the time, the company also predicted it would maintain this growth rate in coming quarters.
In related news, Symbian Ltd. yesterday announced Symbian OS v9.3, its latest upgrade. Version 9.3 includes incremental enhancements that improve phone performance and reduce time-to-market for handset vendors and mobile operators, the company says. The new OS version is scheduled to start shipping in 2007. More info from this Symbian announcement.
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