Yesterday, in a third quarter earnings call, Motorola's CEO, Sanjay Jha, said that they would be stream lining its OS strategy to concentrate on three platforms: P2K (low end and feature phones), Android (consumer smartphones) and Windows Mobile (business phones). Motorola will no longer use its own LinuxJava (MOTOMAGX) or the Symbian UIQ platform. It also appears that several UIQ phones that are currently in development, which would have hit the market next year, will be abandoned. Read on for more.
Read on in the full article.
As I commented in the Insight podcast, I've been fed up with Motorola's fickleness for years. They caused the downfall of Psion with such a cancellation and they've been dipping into and out of other platforms with gay abandon ever since.
It's like having a girlfriend who simply can't make up her mind. I'd have ditched her years ago. Before she ditched me. Again.
Motorola deserves everything it gets for its attitude and lack of stickability in this decade.
Steve [personal thoughts only]
The writing has been on the wall for some time really. First Moto cancelled "Skarven" (Z12) and now it seems "Texel" and "Ruby" are gone too. It's a great pity as Texel was pretty much ready for release (due Q4 08 / Q1 09) and Ruby was rumoured to be quite close too.
Finally a good decision from Motorola.
slitchfield wrote:As I commented in the Insight podcast, I've been fed up with Motorola's fickleness for years. They caused the downfall of Psion with such a cancellation and they've been dipping into and out of other platforms with gay abandon ever since. It's like having a girlfriend who simply can't make up her mind. I'd have ditched her years ago. Before she ditched me. Again.
Motorola deserves everything it gets for its attitude and lack of stickability in this decade.
Steve [personal thoughts only]
Hear Hear! Couldn't agree more! Motorola and 'strategy'... - talk about oxymoron...
Since the critical mass for UIQ is going down, SonyErcisson will have to select S60, Android or WM as a replacement. For a lot of reasons including insider rumors, Android is probably the best bet.
I personally believe that Symbian is outdated since it doesn't offer anything like .NET CF. Android isn't there yet, but it is actually quite close.
Sincerely
Unregistered Poster
Dismaied Symbian developer, almost happy Android convert
Sony Ericsson has chosen the Symbian Foundation (or S60 if you prefer). It expects to release its first handset in H2 2009. They said they look at Android (who wouldn't), but do not have any plans with it. They use Windows Mobile in the X1 (Xperia range) and I imagine there may be more of those (but its a high nice solution not an platform strategy choice).
Interesting comment on not having .NET CF - I agree to an extent - an abstracted programming layer / platform would be good. I would point out there are plenty of other options (Flash, WRT, Python, Open C etc. with more of the way) so I don't think this is the issue it used to be (when it was Symbian C++ or Java only).
I assume you know there's a working run time (currently CF v2, but v3.2 next year) from Red Five Labs.
Rafe�s right. At SE devs support forum they even told devs to start looking at s60 v5 SDK, more clear than that is impossible...
Regarding Motorola...i agree with Steve...in fact i wrote i never believed Moto�s commitment to UIQ at uiqblog. Everything they did (not do) since they became UIQ shareholders is the proof. Its not only SE the responsible for UIQ�s death, the fact that Motorola was close to inactive only made things worse.
However Motorola still have ... many talented engineers
Yeah, who after all those "strategies" are - confused? disillusioned? p*ssed off? ready to jump ship? scheduled for layoff, or at least fearing to be so?
Anything but ready to bring their talents to bloom, I would guess.
Who cares? They are no longer relevant, and will likely not even be in business in a year. They will never ship an Android phone either.
I have just never understood Motorola's inability to make a decision and stick by it. They should have decided on one (or possibly 2) OS's years ago and stuck with it. Instead they get 90% way through the development of something and drop it. Its probably because they were not good products (although the phone they developed with Psion looked good) so instead of blaming their design departments the design departments blame the OS and it gets dropped for the next OS which they also muck up the design for. Has Motorola ever produced a good smartphone using any platform? Its no wonder Motorola looks like a fading company.
No surprise about Symbian going away on Moto. They never did a proper job of selling that product. I'm surprised to see them kill their own Linux phones -- tremendously popular in Asia. But as usual Moto screwed up -- they can't do 3G. It is a shame.
I think Motorola may not be the last and only company to leave Symbian. SE may be the next one.
I think they are next to go as there is not real reason to use them as the choice is Symbian, Google or Microsoft. Motorola scrapping their linux platfrom is a kick in the teeth for LiMo.
If I was a UIQ developer, I would tell both Motorola and Sony Ericsson "Don't let the door open after you" or something.
Motorola ownership was the PROBLEM of UIQ.
If people will see Motorola credible on Windows Mobile/Android scene with their current culture, good luck to them too.