In February 2007 Sony Ericsson completed the acquisition of UIQ, a user interface company owned by Symbian since 1999 but whose framework derives from the pen-based application platform Quartz 6.0 developed by Ericsson Mobile Communications framework.

As of the first half of 2007, cumulative shipments of UIQ devices did not exceed 7 million units, representing less than 5 per cent of total cumulative Symbian smartphones. The majority of UIQ phones shipped came from Sony Ericsson - a market share of 70 per cent.

Although UIQ was Symbian's in house UI, the company had neglected its development during the last five years. This was reflected through the small workforce dedicated to developing UIQ, represented by less than 10 per cent of the total number of Symbian engineers and developers.

It has always been Symbian's strategy to focus on the core OS giving the flexibility to customers to use or develop the UI of their choice for better handset customisation and product differentiation. This strategy has led to the success of both Nokia's S60 platform, used mainly by Nokia, Samsung and LG, and NTT DoCoMo's MOAP used by Fujitsu, Sharp, Mitsubishi, SE, and Motorola in Japan. As a result, Sony Ericsson and Motorola, the main licensees of UIQ, were left to with a highly rigid and less advanced UIQ framework that can be used only for high end smartphones.

Indeed the development of UIQ has been highly focussed on the graphical user interface and navigation tasks with little effort dedicated to enhancing its functionality and supporting additional features. For example, while the latest versions of both MOAP and S60 support a number of innovative features and functionalities including Web 2.0, VoIP telephony, SIP, FMC, PoC, Active Idle screen, OMA-DM, Instant Messaging, FOTA download, push email, real time kernel support, and flexibility to support different screen resolutions, UIQ does not come with any of these qualities.

The neglect of UIQ business by Symbian has provoked considerable frustration on the part of both Sony Ericsson and Motorola. As a result Motorola decided to sell its 19 per cent stake in Symbian in 2003 as part of a major change in its mobile OS strategy to support Linux for powering its mass market feature phones. Motorola publicly announced that Linux will account for 60 per cent of it mobile handset portfolio in the near future.

Sony Ericsson on the other hand expressed its frustration in a much smarter fashion. The company simply decided to take control of UIQ development in an attempt to efficiently capitalise on Symbian OS assets, better customise its devices and fill the gap caused by the lack of a strong UI framework capable of competing with the likes of Nokia S60 phones. Soon after the acquisition of UIQ, Sony Ericsson invited UIQ licensees and other vendors to invest in the UIQ business so that the platform can be upgraded from an advanced graphical and navigation interface to a best in class UI framework armed with functionalities and features that will enable it to better compete against Nokia's S60. Just eight months after this acquisition, the number of UIQ employees has grown to 350 from just 160 prior to the acquisition and the number of solutions partners has jumped to 25 from just 12 prior.

Motorola has been the first UIQ licensee to respond to Sony Ericsson's call in reaction to the on going competition from S60 and Apple iPhone. This move will significantly help UIQ to strengthen its R&D resources, which will enable the company to quickly react to the rapid evolution of the mobile handset market. Other licensees including BenQ and Arima may also want to join SE and Motorola in investing in UIQ but this will depend on the strategic direction UIQ takes over in the short term.

There are some speculations that Motorola hopes to steer UIQ development towards supporting Linux OS, a strategy that follows the example of NTT DoCoMo's MOAP which supports both Symbian and Linux. Although this might be in line with Motorola's strategy for adopting Linux as its main platform while continuing to support Symbian, Sony Ericsson has not showed any ambitions of adopting Linux in the near future. In addition, because UIQ roots are deeply correlated to Symbian OS, it will take at least two to three years before this platform could become compatible with Linux OS.

What is obvious is that Motorola is seriously lacking a consistent and compelling UI, which has significantly alienated a number mobile phone users from the Motorola brand after an initial disappointing experience. Adopting and contributing to the development of UIQ will enable Motorola to remedy to the present UI deficiency it has been suffering but this move could be also signal a change in Motorola's strategy when it comes to adopting Linux as the main OS for mass market models, mainly in regions such as Europe. There are signs that Linux is not yet ready for the mobile challenge and most importantly its success has to be proved beyond Chinese and Japanese markets. In this case Motorola could use Symbian and UIQ as an alternative to service Europe and to certain extent North America while the company is likely to preserve its Linux strategy in Asia Pacific.

In conclusion, Informa Telecoms & Media sees Motorola and Sony Ericsson investments in UIQ as a significant development that might enable UIQ to gain momentum and better compete against the S60 and iPhone, especially in Europe.

However, the next generation Nokia S60 does not look easily beatable as devices embedding this version (likely to be in the market place by early 2008) will be equipped with touch screen and ScreenPlay functionality, which will enable multi-frame exposure on the display and enhanced graphical acceleration for multi-service support and better user experience for video streaming and telephony.

Malik Kamal-Saadi is a principal analyst with Informa Telecoms & Media

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