This one is taken directly from AAS, posted by my friend, Rafe Blandford :
“Following a board meeting on 29th December the board of UIQ Technology resolved to file for bankruptcy. This follows on from the news, in early November, that staff had been put on notice and a temporary transition period was being funded by Sony Ericsson. With that period over, with no alternative investor available and given the current economic climate the board had no choice but to shutter the company.
Approximately 200 people were still working for UIQ when the announcement was made. Responsibility for the operating and winding down of UIQ Technology falls to the insolvency administrator appointed by the Blekinge district court.
“There are no opportunities to create a new line of business in the current financial climate,” UIQ Chief Executive Johan Sandberg told Reuters.
Johan Sandberg, CEO of UIQ Technology said, “We got into a position where we have no customers, no product to sell, and therefore no income either” (rough translation from Swedish).
While this outcome has been the most likely since the announcement of the Symbian foundation last year the decline has been rapid. Sony Ericsson’s decision to switch, sooner rather than later, to the Symbian Foundation Platform (effectively S60) and Motorola cancellation of its substantial 2009 UIQ portfolio (and switch to Android), both accelerated the decline of UIQ Technology.”
The news reached me yesterday and I took this liberty to share my thoughts with you guys (in no particular order) :
1. It adds a shipload of salt to the already unrecoverable wound in my heart…
2. In one of my correspondences with the good people from inside UIQ Technology itself last year, we agreed that this is another classic example of how a superior technology is being killed by a more inferior ones. Remember VHS vs Betamac?
3. The people behind UIQ ecosystem are GENIUS
4. I’m 33 years old and I’ve seen Psion’s EPOC lost in the PDA battle, then Palm OS slowly went into oblivion, and now… UIQ had to surrender to the Smartphone Industrial Complex…
5. From the moment Sony Ericsson took over UIQ Technology from Symbian, I thought something will gone wrong… And SE splits the ownership with Motorola. WTF?… Motorola of all phone manufacturers! They didnt even know how to run the business anymore, no focus, setting foots inside all phone platforms known to mankind… And it turns out my honcho is correct…
6. So what will be my preferred platform? An S60? An iPhone? A Windows Mobile? An Android? An OpenMoko, A Palm OS? What?…
7. I always want to say this in public but I keep it till the right time and I think now is the time “I HATE MOTOROLA! You always fuck the good stuff from EPOC/Symbian. FUCK You Motorola!!!”
8. Sometimes, I did hope that Bill Gates or Steve Jobs were involved in one way or another with Symbian…
9. Whatever happened and whatever will be, thank you UIQ! Thank you for making my life more meaningful and complete. There’s no other platform in my heart that is as dear as UIQ and if I am the richest person in the world, I will buy UIQ, business or no business… I want to keep the name, the legacy, the technology, the superiority…
10. Pardon me guys for the very strong words!
13 Comments Received
January 6th, 2009 @10:25 pm
I do feel that UIQ is the superior OS for business/smartphones. Killing such a wondeful technology is really unacceptable. I thought of buying new phone but which one to buy now??? crashing, hanging S60 Nokia??? Complicated Windows-HTC ?? No mobile has got many useful featues such as qwerty keyboard, touch screen, multitasking capabilities and user friendly os. Never hangs and never crashes. I didn’t find a phone with all these features in the whole world. So i would use P1i untill it works fine. It’s 1year 5months old now and i am sure i can use it for another 2years without any problem. Hope someone will restart UIQ technology for smart people.
January 6th, 2009 @10:41 pm
Sad but true my friend, sad but true
January 7th, 2009 @12:51 am
Good riddance. It was always a niche system for a couple of geeks. It didn’t have specific outstanding features like business communication (Blackberry push mail ecosystem) or easy to use interface (iPhone) or high-end hardware (Nokia N series). This is Darwinism, the fittest survives, stop whining.
January 7th, 2009 @7:48 pm
My opinion is that SE betted too much on the Walkman factor, and forgot to create alternative hype factors around UIQ.
Just noticed all these UIQ technologies completely wasted!
(no special order)
1. QWERTY keyboard => Only 1 model (the P1). QWERTYs are addictive, if more models had them, they would have sold better (and be a differentiation factor from other brands)
2. UIQ3 support for any screen resolution => Never released a phone with more than QVGA.
3. Good handwriting recognition. Most users never tried it because it’s not well advertised.
4. Too small screens. iPhone has proven that people don’t mind a larger phone for a good 16:9 screen (with resolution)
5. Very bad codec support, specially video codecs.
6. Design could be more pleasing.
7. As I gathered from my friends, the (awkward) P1 keyboard was a major letdown for anyone that tried the P1 before buying. Most bought S60s just because of the full QWERTY.
8. Bad technical support and hardware problems. Just one example, I’m still living with my P1’s bad camera CCD with the red smudge.
9. Bad landscape support. Almost no applications.
10. It was a major strategic disaster moving from UIQ2.1 to UIQ3 without apps retro-compatibility.
And finally, I believe the last UIQ3 interface was still a long way of being intuitive, and specially, still have a lot of interface elements that can not be finger-pressed.
To finish, I must say that my P1 it’s the most reliable Smartphone I ever seen, very battery efficient, and will continue to be a good “friend”
Long live UIQ3 ! … not.
January 7th, 2009 @9:24 pm
@Sebhelyesfarku
Better a jack of all trades rather than a master of just one. UIQ was a balanced solution of all. All the devices you have mentioned are leaders in their own segments (Nokia: Imaging, Blackberry: Push email, Iphone: eye-candy. But tell me one device which does it all?
I will preserve my W960 till time immemorial, as it was one of the last few UIQs device ever launched.
January 7th, 2009 @11:20 pm
Well, you’re wrong.
Until some time it was absolutely superior.
Than it slowed down and it killed it.
But here we also whine over excellent UI and it’s possibilities, confirmed by software creators. Over a great usability etc. At the time P990 was introduced, it was a killer.
Than things went wrong.
But time goes on and marketing & sales matter too.
P.S. I honestly think X1 is QUITE a nice replacement for Peries.
With glitches though.
January 8th, 2009 @9:15 pm
UIQ3 is just visually attractive but the user interface is BADLY designed. You fans are just carried away by the visual beauty but it honestly suffers in usability.
1. P990i -the worst in usability! forget it!
2. M600,P1i,W950,W960 -Much better usability than P990i but back key is located at the top which takes effort to reach (stupid UIQ3 designers! it’s best place is the right softkey!). There is a hardware button at the left side but not comfortable to press regularly. Where is the standby button?? You have to press-and-hold the side button that takes even more effort! Where is the taskmanager button?? It is supposed to be accessible but look where they placed it! (only idiots can design that!) SAMSUNG i780 is more creative of revealing task-list by swiping your thumb from the buttom.
3.G900,G700 with all the hardware buttons but wasn’t able to solve all issues. The taskmanager is still stupidly placed at the top. We can’t blame SonyEricsson because it’s the standard UIQ3 interface. bad design UIQ you deserve it!
In contrast, look at the S60v5 of Nokia 5800xm. Note: Were talking about a device that has only 3 main buttons!
1. standby key is just a press away and conveniently located at the bottom.
2. back softkey is very reachable with thumb at the right.
3. menu key is just at the center. very convenient.
4. press and hold it will activate the taskmanager. so practical! good job Nokia you deserve to be on top!
None of the above can be done comfortably with your beloved P1i. Now how could you call that a great UI ???????
I admit s60v5 is not yet as attractive as UIQ3(with all its colorful) themes but s60v5 is far superior in usability!
arsi - I understand your situation but please wake up! I felt UIQ3s failure from the beginning and it’s meant to die.
January 9th, 2009 @5:20 pm
just wanna say, today i’m still in love with my p1i. With UIQ inside, it’s so easy for me to make a theme, change icon, surf the web, blogging from my phone etc.
January 11th, 2009 @5:35 am
am using a tweaked P990 for almost 2 years now. hardly have any complaints. UIQ team should find some rich asian/chinese investors who understands their good potential concept so maybe the partnership can start from there to rebuild the company. think good ideas people meets good marketing people =D
January 14th, 2009 @12:18 pm
ive been an avid fan of this blog because of my P1i, sad to say its ending like the uiq. ive had my P1 for a year now and its still rocks. its a very solid platform, very stable. ive owned nokias and motorolas before but i was and still am and will be in awe with my P1i and its uiq3 soul.like the previous guys comment, ill keep my P1i.
January 14th, 2009 @5:02 pm
uiq.com not working anymore!
January 16th, 2009 @7:15 pm
Sony is Sony, Ericsson is Sony’s tool to bussines only. Sony has good products, but Sony has milions bussines stategies too. Please remember about Sony does begining to maked the game console with Nintendo (playstation story). And then, did Ericsson had walkman & cybershot products before? Now Sony have to planing to make PSP phones without Ericsson (rumours)!
Latest, how about their smartphones? What happened about UIQ!
Now I use w960i, I choiced this fone cause of UIQ Technology have insided and build in min of standart recommended ideal RAM for UIQ 3.3, not walkman (just music brand only, not support 3,5mm output, the standart jack for portable music devices)!
Have I use it with many troubles about back and task manager and standby buttons? I don’t have thats.. If U runs some app, and U want to change to run the other app, presss and hooold back button (to standby) and U can get easily to find your destinations choice for what app do U want there with your thumb (U can replace the empty or others extra icon on stanby menu for “MENU” and ”TASK MANAGER” icons).
Sony’s hardwares are poor. The loudspeaker is very bad (spesialy for walkman brands with the Megabass EQ), please compare with Moto ROKR E6 or RIZR Z8 loudspeakers!
I hope UIQ 3.3 will completing PHILIPS to begining make smartphones products…
I hope Philips is not make Nexperia chips for UIQ and Symbian smartphones only, but its time be smartphones productor…
I hope UIQ will be apart of PHILIPS to brings smartphones, may be came joint with Ericsson.
Philips Ericsson is A Great Name, how it’s be true? Running on Symbian v.9.5 or Unix Linux with The Superior UI (UIQ 3.3 or UIQ 4.0 or even more)!
Don’t Ever Die UIQ Technology…
Be The King of smartphones and PCs OS tomorow, I’ll be wait U to change Windows OS in my PC with yours…
January 16th, 2009 @7:35 pm
My wish is a PHILIPS smartphone running on UIQ superior UI
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