Could this be Sony Ericsson’s iPhone-fighting UI - the Sony Ericsson Maria?
By Will Park on Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 at 11:40 AM PST In Apple, Applications, Rumors, Sony Ericsson, Symbian, iPhone OS
Everyone’s out to get the iPhone - that much is indisputable. With a clear edge in the UI department, manufacturers are scrambling to take on the full-touchscreen-based interface on the iPhone. Enter Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE).
The Sony Ericsson Maria is the rumored iPhone-fighter with a full touchscreen. From what we can see above, the UI is based on a new UIQ OS that is optimized for finger-based touch inputs. Could we possibly be looking at the Sony Ericsson Maria’s UI? We’ll just have to wait and see.
As many faults as the iPhone has, we gotta hand it to Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) for spurring the kind of innovation and development that the mobile space so badly needed. And it’s all about the (cough) touchscreen (cough).
[Via: JustAMP]
that is actually a picture i took at the UIQ press conference the day before the symbian smartphone show. they are concepts.
Finger based touchscreen interfaces have been developed by the likes of Nokia for several years already. Sure, iPhone beat them in the race, and certainly hightened the sense of urgency. But I just dislike all these reports that give the impression that it all started only after the iPhone. E.g. the Nokia “iPhone clone” proto they showed had apparently been circulating in Nokia corridors for 2 years in various incarnations.
Stefan, I noticed this same slide when you posted it on the day of the press conference, and I event left you a comment about it, but you seem to have ignored it.
Touchscreens have been around for years and years. All my favorite Windows Mobile devices were all touchscreens - Pocket PC, Professional. My first Windows Mobile Pocket PC phone was back in 2002.
But, touchscreens have been mostly pressure-sensitive until the iPhone - a drawback on the WinMo devices with touchscreens.
The iPhone was definitely not the first touchscreen device - but it definitely ignited a firestorm of innovation.