Nokia nolonger holding back Symbian UIQ
October 1, 2007 by Dario Soltani
Sony Ericsson had great success the last couple of years with their Walkman® models but the company now faces and prepares for new threats. The market has changed with the introduction of products and technologies such as the iPhone and multi touch screens. The battle of delivering the next generation of user interfaces has begun.
Six months ago Sony Ericsson bought UIQ Technology. UIQ is basically a GUI (graphical user interface) that provides additional functionality to the core operating system and an interface for touch sensitive devices. The company is now going through a rapid growth and is focusing on delivering tomorrows user interfaces for high end mobile devices - also known as mobile multimedia computers. As UIQ mainly was used by Sony Ericsson and partially owned by Nokia, it’s been said that Nokia halted UIQ’s development to diminish the growth of Sony Ericsson.
I hate to admit it, but when Apples introduced the iPhone, the mobile industry changed. Apple hoping for 1% of the mobile market with the iPhone (being a successor of the iPod’s), managed to take advantage Sony Ericsson and Nokia’s UIQ dispute. Steve Jobs and his staff at Apple’s could not have chosen a better timing.
Up until February 2007 UIQ was owned by Symbian, which in turn was 50% controlled by Nokia. Nokia was not very interested in investing money on UIQ, as it mainly was used by Sony Ericsson for their advanced P-series, models being in direct competition to Nokia’s N-series. With Sony Ericsson as owners UIQ started a major growth. In January 2007 UIQ had 150 employees, today they’re 340.
Johan Sandberg, CEO of UIQ says he needs at least 100 more knowing he has no choice but to intensify the development of the UIQ platform. While he tackles the problems of growing 226% in 10 months (which could mean quality problems in an initial phase) he has to develop a GUI good enough to compete with the iPhone’s OSX.
It’s probably not wild speculations to think Apple must have studied this gap in touch sensitive technology development, caused by rivalry between Nokia and Sony Ericsson, and eventually decided to move in the heavy artillery by introducing the iPhone and it’s multi-touch interface to the market. By now, people are starting to understand the iPhone isn’t just a device, it’s a phenomena I’d like to call "the iPhone Syndrome", meaning the introduction of Apple and their iPhone combined with new technology such as multi-touch screens creates new trends and inspires developers all over the world. I’m sure we’ll see many iPhone influenced products in the near future.
The entire mobile industry is going through major changes. Faster and more reliable data transfers together with better wireless network technology has triggered a boom of VoIP softwares (Voice over IP) enabling users to call for free. Using a WLAN-featured phone, free wireless networks aka hotspots available in most major cities, and a VoIP software such as Fring, users can call and talk for free. This is of course alarming news for the mobile carriers, now trying to find a sanctuary by delivering services instead of making money on tariffs.
Motorola’s Z8
The mobile industry believes integrated services are the next major cashcow, much because of Apple’s iTunes phenomena. iTunes basically being a software people use to buy and download entertainment, covering 95% of all the legal music downloads on the Internet. The trends is evident and can been seen at Nokia whom recently introduced their NokiaMusic portal (pay for downloading music), their GPS map system (pay for extra functionality such as turn-by-turn voice navigation), their new game portal, nGage Arena to name a few.
The UIQ management has no choice but to grow, they have loads to catch up with compared to Apple, and perhaps most importantly they need to position Sony Ericsson as one of the worlds best mobile multimedia computer manufacturers. These type of phones make for 10% of the total cellphone market, but the computer like phones are high in profit and are expected a rapid growth for the coming years.
As hardware gets more complex, so does the software and one of the problems facing the manufacturers today are profits vanishing because of the high costs developing software which are not spread over big volumes. Mats Barvesten, manager for UIQ’s productplan sees three different options for manufacturers in need of a new GUI:
- Buy a complete solution such as Microsoft Mobile from a company such as Microsoft.
In his opinion a complete solution can be very cost efficient as many manufacturers split the development costs. The downside being becoming dependent on the development company and lack of influence on the product. Those choosing Windows Mobile find themselves in a hardly controlled environment where Microsoft decides everything.
- Follow Nokia’s model developing some of the software needed yourself (Symbian), buy the rest from a company you partially own.
The Nokia model is not a good alternative either, because no other manufacturers wants to be dependent of the markets biggest company. This is basically the reason for Sony Ericsson buying UIQ Technology.
- Build a new product from scratch using Linux or some other operating system.
Building a product from scratch is expensive as it usually means more work and more costs. Using open source developing environments means nobody can set the terms of use and non-compatible solutions.
Mr Barvesten is of course promoting his own company, saying UIQ provides a unified standard as well as providing both manufacturers and carriers big customization possibilities. Sony Ericsson is trying hard to launch UIQ as a separated company ready to sell its products both to Sony Ericsson and others. So far only Motorola has used UIQ and will potentially make good profits with their Z8 model.
Only one thing is sure, if UIQ is to become successful they need to cooperate with other manufacturers, build and maintain a loyal users group as well as break new ground.
Source: http://www.e24.se (swedish)
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