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Motorola dump UIQ - no more UIQ phones to be released |
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UPDATED: As originally reported by Mobile Phone Development blog, Motorola have dumped UIQ (and Java-Linux) and will not be producing any more UIQ based phones. Motorola will focus on Android, Windows Mobile, and own P2K
platform for low-cost handsets. Will no longer support Symbian UIQ or
own Java-Linux platform. Consolidation of platforms should reduce
expenses on OS development."
This news effectively means the end of any hope of Motorola producing any more UIQ phones. Even phones (such as Texel and Ruby) which were in advanced stages of development will now no longer see the light of day. It also means we're unlikely to see any official firmware updates from Motorola for any of their existing UIQ phones. A sad day indeed!
Update: We've now received confirmation that this move has resulted in a large number of job losses and site closures. The list as we understand it at the moment is as follows:
Sites closing
Birmingham (UK)
Turin (Italy)
Alborg (Denmark)
Rennes (France)
Job losses, but sites remaining
Basingstoke (UK): 180 jobs going
Readers have left 3 comments. 1. patrixl, Registered What I haven't seen explained anwhere yet is does this mean Moto is pulling out of the Symbian Foundation?
Patrix. 2. nl dude, Registered it had to happen sometime, uiq just didnt offer enough. Im just waiting for a nice phone with a decently supported system... 3. stuart, Super Administrator This means we have no idea about the Symbian Foundation.
Motorola haven't said anything official to indicate they're not staying with the foundation, but we all know how unlikely they are to ever want to license S60, even if it is free and opensource.
What's more interesting about this is their move to pull support / development for Java-Linux, which they've thrown many millions of pounds at in the last few years... that's where Moto really screwed up - if they'd used UIQ or S60 over J-L, then they'd have been in a much stronger position now. |
