UIQ Closes Its Doors

This is a bad way to start off the year – UIQ has just filed for bankruptcy today, which will see the end of its mobile operating system in the cell phone market. Somehow, this piece of news isn’t exactly shocking since from half a year ago, there were already job cutbacks back then, alongside the abandonment of the platform by Motorola and Sony Ericsson who prefered to go to bed with the Symbian Foundation instead. In addition, Motorola and Sony Ericsson (those two again) have been making overtures at Android for selected devices, so it will be interesting to see whether either one (or both) will stop their affiliation with UIQ completely for future handsets, or settle for a gradual ramp down in terms of support.