Sony Ericsson and Motorola Inc. will be co-owners of UI Holdings BV, the parent company of UIQ Technology AB, as Motorola acquires a 50 percent stake. Under the agreement, Motorola and Sony Ericsson will work together and jointly invest in the development of the UIQ open user interface platform. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. UIQ Technology is wholly owned by Sony Ericsson, which it acquired from Symbian Ltd.
UIQ Technology licenses the UIQ open user interface and development platform to mobile phone vendors. Motorola and Sony Ericsson will work on advancing UIQ as cross-vendor user interface for smart phones and media-centric phones. In addition, Motorola and Sony Ericsson plan to beef up their cooperation and support for the UIQ developer program.
"This is an important transaction that demonstrates the increasing importance of open operating systems for all handset vendors," said Miles Flint, president of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications. "By working together in a strong, mutually beneficial partnership, handset vendors can reduce development costs and help operators launch more consistent services with greater efficiency. At the same time, service providers and applications developers benefit from a more robust environment to create compelling end-to-end solutions which benefit consumers by enabling a more personalized user-experience."
Adds Alain Mutricy, senior VP, platforms, Motorola Mobile Devices, "Motorola’s investment in UIQ will enable us to bring feature-competitive multimedia devices to market. Its flexibility will enable us to bring devices to market that meet regional preferences or specific operator customisation requirements." (52RD.com) |
