Symbian has been used on 100 different models and ships on 70 percent of all smartphones sold

Symbian’s results for the first quarter of 2006 included the news that over 100 different smartphone models have been issued running its Symbian OS software platform.

Although only about 66 Symbian-based models are currently available from phone makers, over 100 different models have shipped since the Ericsson R380 was introduced to the market back in 2000, according to Symbian.

The one hundredth model was Nokia's 3250, a consumer-oriented camera phone running the company's S60 user interface and designed to play music.

However, more business-focussed handsets have also come to market, such as Nokia's new E Series range and Sony Ericsson's P990 handset.

Symbian OS currently runs on about 70 percent of all smartphones sold, a position the company said it expects to maintain.

"We've seen about 20 percent growth comparing the first quarter of 2005 to the first quarter of 2006, and we're looking at this continuing," said Symbian chief financial officer Thomas Chambers.

Symbian said its 10 phone maker licensees sold 11.7 million units between them in the last quarter, adding up to an overall total of more than 70.5 million Symbian OS devices to date.

Symbian OS licensees have typically sold over 700,000 units of each model, which Chambers contrasted with devices running Microsoft's rival Windows Mobile software. "Microsoft recently announced its hundredth Windows Mobile model from HTC, but their numbers of units shipped are far smaller than ours," he said.