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Could this be Sony Ericsson’s iPhone-fighting UI – the Sony Ericsson Maria?

By: , IntoMobile
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 at 11:40 AM

Sony Ericsson Maria

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.

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 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]

About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...

  • Stefan Constantinescu

    that is actually a picture i took at the UIQ press conference the day before the symbian smartphone show. they are concepts.

  • Viipottaja

    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.

  • Denis Baranov

    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.

  • Will Park

    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.