14 DAY TRIAL // According to the latest news on the Web, UIQ Technology has declared bankruptcy, at least this is what the company's CEO Johan Sandber is reported to have said to the Swedish newspaper Sydöstran. It seems that UIQ was unable to secure additional funding from its main owners, Sony Ericsson and Motorola, and that it is set to begin liquidation proceedings.
The announcement does not come as a surprise to anyone, as the company was somehow expected to fall after the forming of the new Symbian Foundation last year. UIQ Technology surfaced from the former Ericsson, coming from the Mobile Applications Lab initiative, the base for the first touch display smart device platform to appear on the European mass market. Nevertheless, it saw success only in Europe, due to the fact that it had low carrier support and a rather high development curve.
The first licensor for the platform was Sony Ericsson, which launched the P800 smart device back in 2002, as well as the P900 and P910 in 2004. Motorola and BenQ also launched the A920/925/1000, as well as the Japanese market M1000 and the P90 respectively. Sony Ericsson remained the major licensor until 2007, when Motorola came to the market with its Z8.
In 2008, Motorola launched Z10 and Sony Ericsson its G800/G900 handsets, and the year was supposed to be a transition one for UIQ, but the forming of the consolidated Symbian Foundation announced by Nokia in July marked a turning point for the company. All hope on further development for UIQ was blown away when the company was announced that it would receive funding from its main investors only for two months starting with November.
UIQ laid off 200 people and was forced to declare bankruptcy so as to be able to cover almost eight years in which it had only losses. According to some former employees, a poor executive management might be the cause of the company's fall.