UIQ Technology

UIQ Technology developed and licensed an open software platform to the world's leading mobile phone manufacturers and supported licensees in the drive towards developing a mass market for open mobile phones. The UIQ platform was, for example, used in mobile phones from Sony Ericsson, Motorola, BenQ and Arima.

The company focused on usability design, software engineering, product realization, technical consulting, sales and marketing. UIQ Technology, established in 1999, was owned jointly by Motorola and Sony Ericsson. It had a five-man board of directors, including two representatives from Motorola, two from Sony Ericsson, and one independent.

On 7 November 2006, Sony Ericsson announced they had agreed (in principle) to buy UIQ from Symbian Ltd. and run it as a separate subsidiary. The UIQ products would be "openly available, licensed on equal terms to all its licensees". The sale will complete in the next few months "pending regulatory approval and customary closing conditions". The acquisition was completed in February 2007.

On 15 October 2007, Sony Ericsson and Motorola, Inc. announced an agreement for Motorola to purchase a 50% interest in UI Holdings BV, the parent company of UIQ Technology. The two companies worked and invested jointly in the development of UIQ.

UIQ Technology was based in Ronneby, Sweden and situated in the Soft Center Science & Research Park. The General Manager was Johan Sandberg. At that time, UIQ Technology had about 200 staffs.

With the establishment of Symbian Foundation in 2008, UIQ will cease to exist. S60 is the UI choice of Symbian Foundation; UIQ will contribute its assets to the foundation. Patrick Olsson of Sony Ericsson announced on 21 October 2008 at the Smartphone Show 2008 in London that UIQ didn't make the cut, it didn't attract the operator, manufacturer or consumer interest needed to stop it from failing.

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