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UIQ Unleashed: An Interview with Johan Sandberg

Written by Richard Bloor

Thursday, 01 March 2007

The purchase of UIQ by Sony Ericsson means more than a change in the company's shareholder register, it promises to unleash UIQ to develop its platform much faster. Richard Bloor found out more in discussion with Johan Sandberg, CEO of UIQ Technology.

Richard: Clearly the purchase of UIQ by Sony Ericsson is a big change for UIQ, but will it make a difference to the way you operator your business?

Johan: It is going to make a big difference. The biggest change is that we now have an owner who is able to invest readily in UIQ. This means we can put in motion, and already have, some of the development we have been waiting to do.

We also have a greater level of independence now; far more so than we had under Symbian. UIQ is now governed so we can maintain independence from Sony Ericsson. I don't have line reporting into Sony Ericsson; rather I report to the board of directors of a holding company set up in the Netherlands, which in turn is held by Sony Ericsson. This means we are not a division of Sony Ericsson, but a company Sony Ericsson has interests in.

Richard: Why was investment an issue while UIQ was owned by Symbian? Does that mean there was an under investment in UIQ?

Johan: I believe Symbian was not able to invest into UIQ as much it might have liked. Sony Ericsson recognized this issue and, given they want to base their handset strategy on UIQ, felt they had to do something about the situation.

Richard: So UIQ was falling behind S60 due to a lack of investment?

Johan: Yes. Nokia does not have a similar constraint on the investment they can make into S60, although they obviously have to justify investment to their shareholders.

Richard: So what does this new investment and independence mean for the future?

Johan: There are several things we have identified as differentiators and major benefits in UIQ, which we want to develop further.

There is the platform's flexibility. UIQ can support many different form factors and user interaction paradigms. We will be extending that flexibility; adding support for new form factors and making UIQ even more adaptable. This will allow handset manufacturers to create many different phones, across large portfolios. There are obvious benefits to the manufacturer, but it also broadens UIQ's addressable market.

We will also more aggressively exploit our knowledge in user experience. As a platform provider we enable the user experience seen on phones, whereas the handset manufacturer implements the experience in a phone. So we will be improving our ability to enable the best user experience and to help our customers implement it in the best way possible.

Then there are some components we want to add to the platform, but we will talk about them in the future.

The other important thing we want to do is increase our support for the UIQ ecosystem; application developers and suppliers of technology that compliments UIQ. Building this community is very important to us and to Sony Ericsson. It is a key factor in the decision making process for handset manufacturers when they are evaluating a platform like ours. So we are looking at ways to leverage the ecosystems around Symbian, Sony Ericsson, and Motorola. We are also working with Nokia to support the broader Symbian ecosystem and ensuring we are using common tools, such as Carbide.c++, so developers can easily embrace both UIQ and S60. We also plan to run more developer events and create more documentation and white papers.

So there is a lot that Sony Ericsson's new investment will be facilitating, in and around the platform.

Richard: UIQ has been talking about user experience for a while; how much has the hype around the iPhone sharpened your focus in this area?

Johan: User experience has always been a part of our core values and the company is built around that. However, I don't think we have leveraged it enough. Our philosophy is to make advanced functions simple and snappy. Our goal is to simplify the principal mobile use cases so that the user interaction is intuitive; so there is no need to ask how to do something. Clearly, more advance functions may be more complex, but we have to raise the bar when it comes to usability. So, as you know, we have put in place usability metrics to make sure we fully understand the issues with user experience and usability in various devices; not just UIQ devices, we try to look at the whole market. We are taking this experience through the whole company, so it's not just something done in a lab.

We see the iPhone as bringing a bit more of the desktop to the phone and we are certainly interested in seeing how that works. If it works, it may have an impact on our thinking.

Richard: When you talk about user experience do you mean purely from a navigation perspective or are you considering new technology such as haptics?

Johan: Certainly. Our user experience work brings into consideration different ways of interacting with a device and haptics is a very good example.

However, our mission is to enable our customers to do as much as possible. As a result we can't build the UIQ user experience around a specific technology, like haptics or even a touch screen. So we consider how these technologies could be used in a device and then build a user experience that makes the most effective the use of that technology, but which also works for other input technologies.

Richard: Is there a danger that you don't build the best user experience, just the best compromise user experience across a range of different input technologies?

Johan: Yes, this is a danger. However, with UIQ 3 and UIQ 3.1 we believe we have taken the platform to a new level, where form factors and interaction technologies don't control us. We have achieved this by creating an abstraction layer which means handset manufacturers choose an interaction method and a form factor. They can then optimize their devices while maintaining binary compatibility with the platform - because if we lost that it would not really be a UIQ phone.

So within the UIQ framework devices and their applications can be optimized and given a unique look and feel. That's our key differentiator; to enable very different phones that all work same way underneath.

Take the MOTORIZR Z8. This is very different from the touch screen devices created by Sony Ericsson, but still binary compatible with those phones. I think anyone who uses the Z8 will see it sacrifices nothing in terms of user experience and neither have the Sony Ericsson devices.

Richard: Talking of Motorola, I think there was a common view that they had turned their back on Symbian and UIQ, so how did you keep Motorola?

Johan: (Laughs) Motorola has been working with us for a long time, with the A series and more recently the M1000. Obviously they wanted to do something different and we welcomed that. We are very happy that Motorola made this effort. And this is not just a new UIQ phone, Motorola have created a fresh and new industrial design in this phone. It's very much a proof point for what UIQ 3 can do.

Richard: What's your view on Sony Ericsson's invitation for other handset manufacturers to invest in UIQ? How important is this strategy to UIQ?

Johan: The benefit for UIQ is that we can be seen as a player for the larger mobile industry. It's more important to us to have committed licensees, being a shareholder is a proof of commitment. There are benefits from having more shareholders, as long as they are also licensees of course. I feel it is important that we are seen as an independent supplier of technology to the mobile industry, and more shareholders will help enhance that view.

Richard: But is it not a little late?

Johan: It can look late, but the smartphone is a small part of the mobile phone market. Symbian shipped 57 million devices last year, while the market was 1.2 billion. I've been in this industry since 2000 so it may feel like smartphones have been around for a while and the market is mature, but this is still an industry in its formation.

If we were creating a new platform it would be too late, but that is not the case. We have a platform that is used successfully in devices. I also think that the success of other platforms has been driven as much by how individual handset manufacturers have behaved as anything intrinsic in those platforms. So the success of S60 has come from the way Nokia has driven it strategically. A similar drive behind UIQ would quickly gain it a significant position in the market. I'm not saying we will overtake S60 in the next year or so, but I can see a conscious effort by one, two, or three handset manufacturers could make a huge difference.

This is particularly true when you remember that our platform is positioned for devices that can cover a big part of the mobile phone market, not just the high-end.

Richard: You have talked about the importance of having committed licensees. Clearly new licensees are also important. From your point of view how soon do you need to grow your licensee base?

Johan: Having the world's second and forth largest handset manufacturers is not at all bad, but additional licensees are important in the longer term. When you consider lead times in creating new smartphones, it's clear that even with a long term view it is not too long before we need to have new licensees, even if they are unannounced. We are, in other words, right now actively looking for new licensees.
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Posted: 2007-03-01 12:19:20
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Very encouraging!!
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Posted: 2007-03-01 12:45:45
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Hi all,

Yeah great sound bites Blah Blah Blah heard it all before, and as far as takeing UIQ3 to new levels he sure got that right just a shame it was down not up . He better do a much better job with the code on uiq3.1 or all his words will mean nothing. Also sounds just like he must be a friend of Ares another deluded person in the world.

Marc
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Posted: 2007-03-01 17:48:47
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What can i say Doggman, another great piece of unbiased and balanced text!!
Keep it up, you will soon beat mib1800 of the first place




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Posted: 2007-03-01 19:03:15
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LOL
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Posted: 2007-03-01 19:04:21
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@ares
LMFAO
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Posted: 2007-03-01 20:29:00
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Yeah Ares buddy,

You keep believing all the BS you want just stick your head in the sand and all the problems will go away or never exist in the first place you poor deluded boy.

Marc
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Posted: 2007-03-02 05:33:46
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Unforunately, i think this intresting thread is heading to the bin. Thanks to doggman for trashing the thread.

@goldenface: thanks for the information man, keep it up!
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Posted: 2007-03-02 09:19:31
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Anyone can blow its own trumpet for its own product. But whether the reality will the same is another matter all together.

The main hurdle I see for UIQ3 is getting a hit product. P990 was supposed to be the one but it flopped. For the moment the baton is passed to Moto Z8. Z8 is for targeted at Europe, but what kind of a chance Z8 has when face with a avalanche of S60 phones from Nokia, Samsung and LG, most of which with better specs?

UIQ3 success hinge on gettting more manufacturers aboard and have as many phones based on UIQ3 released to the market asap. Samsung and LG are already committed to S60. So who else are there? HTC/RIM/Palm are unlikely to abandon their current platform for UIQ3. BENQ will most likely stick with WM. So the only left are all the minor manufacturers.

SE as the snakehead should spearhead this effort with its own offering. Unfortunately as of now there is no new UIQ3 phones in sight. SE would need to get at least 4-6 UIQ3 phones out in as wide a price range as possible in 2007 to get the momentum going. All in all it would be a (steep) uphill task.


Question

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Posted: 2007-03-02 11:03:25
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