14 DAY TRIAL // Sony Ericsson held a media and analyst briefing today through which they issued an open invitation to phone vendors to become shareholders in UIQ Technology AB that Sony Ericsson acquired from Symbian Ltd.
On February the 2nd. at the briefing, Miles Flint, Sony Ericsson's President explained that UIQ will remain an independent company, while phone vendors are invited to license UIQ or become shareholders in the company.
"UIQ offers a truly personal and rich user experience plus fantastic flexibility for developers, operators and phone vendors as it supports many form factors in one code base as has been illustrated by UIQ products announced at 3GSM," explains Johan Sandberg, CEO of UIQ Technology. "It is easy to port applications between S60 and UIQ on the Symbian platform making it an appealing option for developers."
Sony Ericsson is already a licensee of UIQ and already offers several phones based on Symbian OS and UIQ including the P990, high-end Walkman phone W950 or the M600. The company is in discussions with handset vendors regarding the expansion of the future ownership of UIQ Technology.
They used the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona as an opportunity to issue an open invitation towards them. Sony Ericsson also expects to make future announcements regarding new shareholders and licensees in the following months.
Per Aspemar, Head of Strategy at Sony Ericsson, explained "UIQ Technology is already set up as an independent company and prepared for multiple owners through a holding company. Sony Ericsson has gained valuable experience through its ownership and involvement with Symbian, and believes it has the ability to set UIQ Technology up so that it offers an attractive alternative for a wide variety of phone vendors looking for an independent open user interface platform."