Following the keynote presentation, I had a chance to briefly interview Elisabet Melin, UIQ’s VP of marketing, and Naresh Chouhan, Head of Developer Programs at UIQ. The duo was quite pleasant, answering all of my question without (unfortunately) revealing much about the future UIQ devices. Yeah, that was kinda expected…
Targeted market
Being able to interview UIQ’s VP of marketing intrigued me to ask about UIQ’s targeted market. If you’re familiar about Symbian, you’re probably aware not that many people (especially in the U.S.) don’t understand what UIQ or S60 are. According to Elisabet, it’s the developers and partners that are mostly targeted with UIQ’s marketing efforts. It’s up to Sony Ericsson and Motorola to promote devices to the end users, while UIQ engages and provides support to developers. In addition, it’s the new talented employees whom UIQ (and every other smart company in the world) is trying to reach.
Subtle business…
Next, I’ve asked about their business philosophy, saying “UIQ seems very subtle compared with other industry players.” We have Nokia, Microsoft and now Google who seem more proactive, even if that includes working against their own ecosystem in some ways. According to both Elisabet and Naresh, UIQ is not in the business to compete with its partners and 3rd party application developers. “We’re trying to focus on the user interface and framework, and leave the rest to our developer community.” Seems fair to me…
Customizing phones to different user segments
I’ve found particularly interesting when Naresh said they’re working closely with their respective shareholders to help them customize the user interface according to different user segments. As an example he pointed to Motorola Z8, which is not even marketed as the smartphone, but as the multimedia phone, or even “multimedia monster.” In addition, he also said the same thing could apply to the W960i, which is primarily seen as the high end music phone, rather than a smartphone. Apparently, this way consumers are more aware about what they’re getting into with their mobile phone purchases.
Future plans
It’s hard to get any solid bit of information from UIQ, and I can understand why. Still, they’ve pointed out that in February this year they had 150 employees, while now more than 350 people is working for them. The new office is opened in Budapest, Hungary – which at the moment has the 45-people strong staff. It’s easy to conclude they are preparing to grow rapidly and that during next year, we could expect to see new devices and UIQ 3.2 SDK released. Plus, there’s a UIQ 4.0 in the pipeline…
UIQ SDK 3.1 still works!
Naresh insisted I should point to developers that the current UIQ still works. While they will always be working on the new version of the platform and the SDK, new devices will keep running the “old” code in the time when new SDK is released. Or to put it in other words – UIQ SDK 3.1 is a viable tool and will stay so for some time!
Go West!
Our readers from the U.S. would be glad to know that UIQ is planning to open “U.S. representation” to support Motorola’s efforts. This could easily translate into Z8 and other upcoming Motorola phones being released in the U.S. Plus, let’s not forget AT&T has been adding few of the Sony Ericsson’s phones lately, and who knows, we may actually see some of their smartphones released in the U.S…
Now, I don’t want to sound too polite or sleazy, but speaking with Elisabet and Naresh was a pleasant experience. They’re both true professionals and are highly dedicated to their work. And just like me, they can’t wait to see the new UIQ powered devices released…