The increase in Symbian OS applications sales through Handango and its channel partners during 2003 was astonishing by almost any measure, showing an increase of 240% over the year. While the rapid increase in the install base of handsets - Symbian shipped over 6.5 million phones in 2003 and in December reached the milestone of shipping a million phones in one month – was certainly one factor, alone, it does not fully explain the growth. For Clint Paterson, VP of Marketing, at Handango there are other factors. Clint points out that owners of Symbian phones each buy more software than owners of any other phone, indeed even more than PDA owners, the traditional mainstream buyers. As a result during 2003 Handango's customers with Symbian phones bought 12% more software than customers owning other devices.

"I think that the people buying Symbian phones are not simply buying a phone," said Clint. "They are buying something more, I'm not sure the reasons can be described succinctly, but there is a social and cultural shift occurring with the types of devices Symbian OS enables. A phone is no longer just something that you use to communicate, rather you use it to organize your life, your work life, your home life. You use it for entertainment, play games on it, view media, find a local movie theater or check the sales report from your company."

Clint sees this integration of peoples work, play and home into one device as a strong reason why the owners are willing to make a greater investment in applications than owners of devices that address different aspects of their lives. This opinion is reflected in the fact that for select Symbian devices the lifetime purchase of software is in excess of $120 US. "We are seeing that Symbian OS device owners are buying a fair number of programs and this is just from data from the last 10 months," notes Clint.

It is also interesting that much of this activity is currently skewed towards to Sony Ericsson P800 and P900 where Clint describes the average customer as "software hungry." This hunger saw software sales for the P800 and P900 achieve the highest revenue for any device in the second half of 2003. That is not to say that sales of Software for Series 60 were not significant, the Nokia 3650 and Nokia 7650 were in the top 5 phones adding software during 2003.

Another important aspect of Symbian OS applications sold by Handango is the selling price. Not only do Symbian OS phone owners buy more applications, but they also pay more for them. Handango regularly compares the average price of software across their supported mobile platforms, phones, Palm OS, Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Smartphone, and Symbian OS. This analysis shows that Symbian OS applications have the second highest average sales price for applications, if the comparison was only for mobile phone applications then Symbian OS applications have the highest average sale price. Java applications sell for around $5 on average while for the Symbian OS it is $17.39, a clear benefit for developers.

The significance of these statistics is not lost on Handango. "We are working closely with Symbian and licensees such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson and are exploring ways to expand this co-operation to include other Symbian Licensees," noted Clint. One of the significant ways that Handango moved to capitalize on the interest in add-on software amongst P800 and P900 owners was through the introduction of the Application Shop Client. "We believe that the way to grow application sales is by exposing more customers to the great things these devices can do," says Clint. "And we have found it best to do that right on the device, which is exactly what the Application Shop Client achieves."

This increased interest in Symbian OS applications is also being noticed by carriers. Handango is seeing similar increases in Symbian applications sales through its operator portals. "Amongst the operators we talk to there is definitely interest in doing more around Symbian applications," says Clint. He points to the recent experience with Vodafone in the UK where a joint promotion with Sony Ericsson and Handango focused on the P900 as a good example of what is being achieved. The promotion involved offering customers a travel or entertainment software pack. To date, the promotion has seen over 50% redemption after launching in December 2003. "Information is starting to get to operators," said Clint. "They are seeing for themselves that there is money in selling Symbian applications."

During 2003 the number of Symbian OS applications carried by Handango increased 155% and is showing no sign of slowing down, so it also appears developers are getting the same message. As an example MobiMate, a long term Palm and Pocket PC developer, saw Symbian OS software become their greatest revenue earner in 2003.

"We believe that everything is coming together for Symbian, they have a great range of devices that are truly creating a mass market," says Clint. "They have owners who are proven software buyers, who spend more money on more applications. This is all a really great case for developers to get involved."

Web: www.handango.com