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4 million iPhones sold last year seems like a lot, right? How about the 14 million Windows Mobile –run devices moved in 2007, nothing to sneeze at either? Well, you can excuse the folks over at Symbian if they view both those amounts as a pittance.

The purveyors of the leading smartphone platform in the world report the shipping of 77.3 million smartphones running on its eponymous operating system (OS) last year. That includes 141 different models from eight licensees.

A total of 188 million Symbian OS phones have shipped since 2000. That’s a 50% increase over the 51.7 million Symbian devices moved in 2006 and a 17% growth in revenue.

Symbian, which formed in 1998, rang in the new millennium with the Ericsson R380, the first Symbian smartphone, six years ago. It took two years for the company to move its first 1 million handsets.

Manufacturers who build Symbian-based handsets add a second interface layer-usually Nokia's S60 interface, but sometimes UIQ-to provide some of their smartphones functionality, look, and feel. So, in essence - to use a housing metaphor - Symbian is the foundation, plumbing, and electrical system; the interface is the furnishings and appliances; and the hardware is the frame upon which the smartphone is built.

For more, see here.