UIQ (formerly known as User Interface Quartz) was a

software platform A computing platform or digital platform is an environment in which a piece of software is executed. It may be the hardware or the operating system (OS), even a web browser and associated application programming interfaces, or other underlying ...

based upon

Symbian OS Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for smartphones. It was originally developed as a proprietary software OS for personal digital assistants in 1998 by the Symbian Ltd. consortium. Symbian O ...

, created by

UIQ Technology UIQ Technology AB was a Swedish company that developed and licensed the UIQ software based on Symbian OS which was used in smartphone offerings from Sony Ericsson, Motorola, BenQ and Arima. They were based in the Soft Center Science & Research ...

AB. It is a

graphical user interface The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows User (computing), users to Human–computer interaction, interact with electronic devices through graphical icon (comp ...

layer that provides additional components to the core operating system, to enable the development of

feature-rich In software, the term feature has several definitions. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers defines the term ''feature'' in IEEE 829 as " distinguishing characteristic of a software item (e.g., performance, portability, or functi ...

mobile phones that are open to expanded capabilities through third-party applications.

History

UIQ was the result of 'Quartz', a user interface for pen PDAs that was one of the three provisional interfaces that were designed by

Symbian Ltd. Symbian Ltd. was a software development and licensing consortium company, known for the Symbian operating system (OS), for smartphones and some related devices. Its headquarters were in Southwark, London, England, with other offices opened in C ...

The first three Quartz phones never made it to market, including Psion's "Odin" in a joint venture with

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent public companies, Motorola ...

, which was cancelled in January 2001, causing Psion's shares to deteriorate. Engineers thereafter created a lighter version of the software which was presented in 2002, and first shipped that year with

Sony Ericsson P800 The Sony Ericsson P800 is a smartphone introduced in 2002 based upon UIQ version 2.0 (which itself is based upon Symbian OS v7.0) from Sony Ericsson. The P800 is considered the successor of the Ericsson R380, and initial design work was done with ...

. Sony Ericsson was the main

OEM An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...

using the UIQ platform in its products. Motorola also developed some products using UIQ, but abandoned the platform in 2004 in favour of

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...

, along with its stake in Symbian Ltd. In 2007, Motorola returned to UIQ with the launch of

Motorola RIZR Z8 Motorola Rizr (, styled RIZR) is a series of slide mobile phones from Motorola, and is one of the series in the 4LTR line. The first model was released in late 2006. It is a sliding phone (in the style of competing Samsung and LG phones), where ...

Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finlan ...

, which was using the competing

Series 60 The S60 Platform (formerly Series 60 User Interface) was a software platform for smartphones that runs on top of the Symbian operating system. It was created by Nokia based on the 'Pearl' user interface from Symbian Ltd. It was introduced at ...

(later S60) platform, created one UIQ device called Nokia 6708, which is a rebadged

BenQ BenQ Corporation (; ) is a Taiwanese multinational company that sells and markets technology products, consumer electronics, computing and communications devices under the "BenQ" brand name, which stands for the company slogan ''Bringing Enj ...

P31, and was only released in the Asia-Pacific region. Sony Ericsson bought UIQ Technology in November 2006, and the next year, Motorola bought half of it. After the creation of the

Symbian Foundation The Symbian Foundation was a non-profit organisation that stewarded the Symbian operating system for mobile phones which previously had been owned and licensed by Symbian Ltd. Symbian Foundation never directly developed the platform, but evangelis ...

and its favouring of S60 as their user interface of choice, UIQ's future was uncertain, as it could no longer develop the software for the Symbian operating system. Many Motorola UIQ devices planned for 2009 were cancelled, including

Motorola Razr3 The Motorola Razr3 (often stylized as RAZR3) is a cancelled series of clamshell/flip mobile phones from Motorola, as the successor to the popular RAZR (and RAZR2) series. The Razr3 consisted of one prototype model, the VE1. Due to the bankruptc ...

, codenamed "Ruby". UIQ Technology filed for bankruptcy in January 2009, which effectively ended the UIQ platform. Sony Ericsson moved on to

Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants. Its origin dated back to Windows CE in 1996, though Windows Mobile itself first appeared in 2000 as Pock ...

and the open source Symbian from the Symbian Foundation, whilst Motorola adopted Google's Android software. UIQ 3.3 was the last version of the platform, based upon Symbian OS v9.3. Developers that developed on the UIQ 3.x platform had a much better story than with previous releases, since all UIQ 3.x phones were served by a single, core SDK.

UIQ programming languages

Native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and enterta ...

applications can be written in C++ using the Symbian/UIQ SDK. All UIQ-based phones (2.x and 3.x) also support

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

applications. UIQ phones employ touch screens with a resolution of 208×320 pixels (UIQ 1.x & 2.x) and 240×320 (UIQ 3.x). Depending on the phone, the

color depth Color depth or colour depth (see spelling differences), also known as bit depth, is either the number of bits used to indicate the color of a single pixel, or the number of bits used for each color component of a single pixel. When referring ...

is 12-bit (4096 colors), 16-bit (65536 colors), 18-bit (262144 colors), and 24-bit (16,777,216 colors) on some newer phones. For developers, the significant items are: * Single SDK model - developers targeting core UIQ features can use the UIQ SDK to target any UIQ 3 device. Extensions targeting specific device features (such as WiFi, etc.) are available from phone manufacturers' websites. * Increased tools support - developers can use whichever tools they are familiar with ( DevStudio,

Eclipse An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three ce ...

Carbide In chemistry, a carbide usually describes a compound composed of carbon and a metal. In metallurgy, carbiding or carburizing is the process for producing carbide coatings on a metal piece. Interstitial / Metallic carbides The carbides of th ...

CodeWarrior CodeWarrior is an integrated development environment (IDE) published by NXP Semiconductors for editing, compiling, and debugging software for several microcontrollers and microprocessors ( Freescale ColdFire, ColdFire+, Kinetis, Qorivva, PX, Free ...

NetBeans NetBeans is an integrated development environment (IDE) for Java. NetBeans allows applications to be developed from a set of modular software components called ''modules''. NetBeans runs on Windows, macOS, Linux and Solaris. In addition to Java ...

). Many of these tools are beginning to support extensive

RAD RAD or Rad may refer to: People * Robert Anthony Rad Dougall (born 1951), South African former racing driver * Rad Hourani, Canadian fashion designer and artist * Nickname of Leonardus Rad Kortenhorst (1886–1963), Dutch politician * Radley ...

features for both C++ and Java developers. Visual Basic programmers can use NS Basic/Symbian OS. * High volume, mid-range devices are now possible, to significantly increase the potential customer base.

List of UIQ 2.x phones

Sony Ericsson Sony Mobile Communications Inc. ( ja, ソニーモバイルコミュニケーションズ株式会社) was a multinational telecommunications company founded on October 1, 2001, as a joint venture between Sony Group Corporation and Ericsson. I ...

(UIQ 2.0) ** Sony Ericsson P900 (UIQ 2.1) ** Sony Ericsson P910 (UIQ 2.1) *

** Motorola A920 (UIQ 2.0) **

Motorola A925 Motorola A925 is a 3G smartphone from Motorola using Symbian OS. Among the most notable features is its built-in A-GPS. The A925 was preceded by the featurewise essentially identical Motorola A920, and was succeeded by the Motorola A1000. The ...

(UIQ 2.0) ** Motorola A1000 (UIQ 2.1) **

Motorola M1000 Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent public companies, Motorola ...

(UIQ 2.1) *

Benq BenQ Corporation (; ) is a Taiwanese multinational company that sells and markets technology products, consumer electronics, computing and communications devices under the "BenQ" brand name, which stands for the company slogan ''Bringing Enj ...

BenQ P30 The BenQ P30 is a 2.5G smartphone from BenQ that uses the UIQ platform based upon Symbian OS Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for smartphones. It was originally developed as a proprieta ...

(UIQ 2.0) ** BenQ P31 (UIQ 2.1) *

Nokia 6708 Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, i ...

(UIQ 2.1) *Arima **

Arima U300 Arima, officially The Royal Chartered Borough of Arima is the easternmost and second largest in area of the three boroughs of Trinidad and Tobago. It is geographically adjacent to Sangre Grande and Arouca at the south central foothills of th ...

(UIQ 2.0) **

Arima U308 Arima, officially The Royal Chartered Borough of Arima is the easternmost and second largest in area of the three boroughs of Trinidad and Tobago. It is geographically adjacent to Sangre Grande and Arouca at the south central foothills of th ...

(UIQ 2.1)

List of UIQ 3.x phones

The following is a list of

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...

s that have been announced/confirmed as running the newer UIQ 3.x platform. PDA-style design (similar to a handheld computer) * Sony Ericsson M600/M600i/M608c (UIQ 3.0) * Sony Ericsson P990/P990i/P990c (UIQ 3.0) * Sony Ericsson P1/P1i/P1c (UIQ 3.0) * Sony Ericsson W950/W950i/W958c (UIQ 3.0) * Sony Ericsson W960/W960i/W960c (UIQ 3.0) Hybrid PDA/Phone design (Candy-bar phone with Touchscreen Display) * Sony Ericsson G700 (UIQ 3.0) * Sony Ericsson G900 (UIQ 3.0) Slider design *

(UIQ 3.1) * Motorola RIZR Z10 (UIQ 3.2)

First phones to use platform versions

*The first UIQ v2.0-based phone was

. *The first phone to use UIQ 3 was Sony Ericsson P990. *The first phone with UIQ 3.1 was

. *The first phone with UIQ 3.2 was Motorola RIZR Z10.

Notes

External links

UIQ Technology

Symbian OS and UIQ Developer Portal
{{Psion–Symbian Smartphones Symbian OS