The purchase of fifty percent on UIQ by Motorola could be one of the most surprising apparent about-face in the history of Symbian. I found out more in conversation with Ulf Wretling (Sony Ericsson) and UIQ's CEO Johan Sandberg.
Motorola was one of the founder members of Symbian Ltd.; however it exited in 2003, apparently to focus on Linux development. Today Motorola seems to have recognized the error of its ways and is now back in the Symbian ecosystem as more than just a licensee.
When Sony Ericsson purchased UIQ in February this year, Miles Flint - Sony Ericsson's CEO - invited other phone manufacturers to become involved with UIQ, as owners or licensees. Now the first company has joined the party, with Motorola purchasing a fifty percent share of UIQ Technology.
"It is very, very exciting to have another mobile phones giant jumping into UIQ," says Ulf Wretling, general manager and head of Content Planning and Management at Sony Ericsson. "The Motorola Z8 is certainly a very powerful UIQ 3 phone and clearly a very serious effort by Motorola. With this purchase Sony Ericsson and Motorola are committed to establishing UIQ as a strong, cross vendor interface for media centric phones and to drive UIQ onto mid range phones as well. The goal for both of us is to continue expanding the use UIQ within both companies. It is certainly an exciting prospect that will mean we see many more UIQ 3 phones."
"I can only agree with Ulf," says Johan Sandberg, CEO of UIQ, "This is very, very exciting for us. I think it will send a strong message to the mobile community and industry. I very much validates the belief we have in what we are doing. From UIQ's perspective we will continue to explore the benefits and uses of the UIQ interface; its user experience, supported device form factors, interaction methods, to make UIQ even more flexible in the types of devices it supports. We will also add more functionality to the platform.
"We will also be working harder with our partners and third-parties developers to make sure that we expand the family working around UIQ. Having Sony Ericsson and Motorola as owners will undoubtedly help us move this cooperation forward and I think it will increase interest from third-party developers wanting to work with us."
"We have been cooperating closely with UIQ and Motorola to strengthen the application base," says Ulf. "As a proof of this, at the Symbian Smartphone Show, we will be demonstrating 50 applications that use a single code base and SIS [installation] file for both Sony Ericsson and Motorola UIQ phones. These applications run on devices with different form factors and input method; with keyboard flips and without, with touchscreens and without, but they all work. There are differences in exactly how the applications behave, to take account of these different form factors and input methods, but it's all done from a single SIS file. I think this shows one of the features that makes UIQ 3 a very strong platform for developers. It also shows that there is no fragmentation, even with the device differentiation we see today. This is a fantastic benefit - for developers and phone manufacturers - which I believe no other platform can match."
"I certainly believe this is our key competitive advantage; that we offer a platform which allows differentiation and innovation, but still leaving the control with the handset manufacturer," says Johan. "We certainly don't try to control what they are doing. So manufacturers can use their own innovations to differentiate, while retaining a common platform where core innovations are available on a truly shared basis."
However it does seem strange that Sony Ericsson has allowed Motorola to take a fifty percent stake, when Sony Ericsson appears to have done more work than Motorola to get UIQ 3 up and running. "We believe in equal rights for all manufacturers when it comes access to a platform for developing phones," Ulf responds. "So UIQ has to be completely fair and non discriminatory towards all its licensees. Joining equally with Motorola was the best way to send this signal to any manufacturers who may be interested in joining with UIQ, as owners or licensees. Ultimately in an open OS world it is inappropriate to try and control competitors, so our activities with UIQ are on an equal and open basis."
So if another company wanted to take a stake in UIQ, they would become an equal partner. "Yes," says Johan. "The agreement allows for Sony Ericsson and Motorola releasing equal shares for any other companies interested it taking up ownership."
The main benefit for anyone using UIQ is to get access to a common base where investment is shared," Johan continues. "Having a strong commitment from our owners strengthens access to an innovative ecosystem. In turn this will see more phones coming to the market. The way UIQ works with its licensees means they still have control over their phones, and the look and feel of the devices, which is the way manufacturers want to work."
"Phone manufacturers can also license UIQ without becoming an owner," says Ulf. "When they do so, as licensees, they will have the same rights and access to the UIQ platform and its technologies, everyone will be treated the same."
However, given Motorola has left the Symbian fold once before, what suggests they will not do it again? "From my perspective, I'm seeing enormous interest from the team at Motorola," says Ulf. "They have received very good feedback on the Z8. So I see strong momentum from Motorola and from my point of view I'm confident they will be here in the long term, but ultimately you will need to ask Motorola that question."
Which we hope to do sometime soon.
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