Wednesday, 17. October 2007, 14:41:43
When
the news was announced a day before the Smartphone Show, everybody thought that this is the big news that is being kept away for long. Since Sony Ericsson acquired UIQ early this year, I believe there were many going-ons and this is one of the results.
Who knows who or what will happen next?
I'll try to give some of my honest opinion about this announcement. First of all, Sony Ericsson has shown it's commitment towards UIQ for many years which resulted in a handful of UIQ powered Symbian smartphones (P800, P900, P910, P990, P1, M600, W950, W960). Although SE did not release many smartphones compared to the Finnish behemoth, the first generation UIQ 2 smartphones from SE are considered almost perfect for it's fanboys. Why? Many reasons, the built quality, the physical size and also SE's willingness to answer to users' grief with firmware releases. However, when P990 entered together with M600 and W950, the world turned upside down. The new generation uses Symbian's new kernel 9.1 and a totally overhauled UIQ 3. Many loved it but most hated it. The result, user frustration and migration to other platforms.
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