In a move which has been fairly well expected since Sony Ericsson and Motorola
killed off their future UIQ phones; all remaining UIQ staff have now effectively been made redundant, with Sony Ericsson only agreeing to fund the company on a month - by - month basis. Read on for the full article from All About Symbian...
With Sony Ericsson's and Motorola's
decision to stop using the UIQ platform in future products the long
term future of UIQ Technology, the company behind the platform, was
thrown into doubt. As things currently stand the long term future of
the company is not secure. As a result, yesterday, its remaining 270
employees were put on notice of dismissal. However Sony Ericsson has
agreed to continue funding the company on a by month by month basis in
order to allow the company to investigate options for the future.
Following on from a board meeting on Wednesday the staff were given
the news on Thursday. Originally it was feared that the UIQ
Technology's activities might have to cease with immediate effect, but
Sony Ericsson is allowing for a transition period. Motorola, UIQ
Technology's other share holder is not involved.
Sony Ericsson has made no specific commitment to the time for which
it will continue to fund UIQ Technology, but it is likely to be only
long enough to explore realistic options for the future. These may
include acquisition by a third party (in whole or in part) or internal
projects leading to restructuring of the company. There are also plans
to assist staff in future endeavours; both those seeking new employment
with existing companies and those who wish to start their own companies.
The people making up UIQ are a very valuable asset and have a great
deal of experience and specialist expertise both collectively and
individually. Given the relative shortage of experienced engineers in
the Symbian ecosystem this could be a good opportunity for companies
looking for people with expertise in usability design and software
development.
UIQ Technology's offices are part of Ronneby's Soft Center,
an ITC focused business park and incubator associated with the local
technical university. It seems reasonable that several start ups could
emerge from UIQ Technology.
This news essentially heralds the end point of the UIQ platform.
While it was, perhaps, an inevitable result of the formation Symbian
Foundation, it has concluded with a somewhat suprsing degree of speed.
Both Sony Ericsson and Motorola have dropped a number of UIQ phones
that were in development with anticpiated release dates in 2008 and
2009.
