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Sony Ericsson Seeks Partners For UIQ

Sony Ericsson President Miles Flint today at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona said he wants wireless carriers and other wireless companies to take an interest (and a stake) in UIQ Technology. UIQ is the Swedish company that makes the UIQ Symbian interface. Sony Ericsson acquired UIQ earlier this month.

Flint said that UIQ will remain an independent company and that he wants to open it up to the mobile market, in much the same way mobile OS Symbian is also a partnership.

Sony Ericsson is very interested in licensing UIQ to other handset makers and wants to make the platform the interface standard for Symbian smartphones.

By acquiring UIQ, Sony Ericsson has, in effect, decided to take on Nokia's Series 60, the dominant platform and interface for Symbian-based smartphones.

This afternoon, UIQ showed off the interface on a number of devices, including the sleek Motorizr Z8.

This announcement opens up a number of critical questions about the future of UIQ and the Symbian OS. Will Sony Ericsson's move with UIQ create friction in the Symbian ecosystem -- i.e. a Nokia Series 60 camp vs. the UIQ vendors? Or will it give handset makers an opportunity to grow the smartphone market? And how will this move impact the business users? Will UIQ succeed in taking enterprise customers in Europe away from Series 60? And will UIQ help Symbian make headway in the U.S. enterprise market?

Please, send me your comments and questions.

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