Owned by both Sony Ericsson and Motorola, the software company UIQ have become one of the first companies in the New Year to file for bankruptcy.� The company began making staff unemployed six months ago but has now filed for bankruptcy in a court in Sweden where the company is based.�

UIQ has recently been taking funding from part owners Sony Ericsson in an attempt to allow employees time to adjust to the situation and allow them to, as comfortably as possible, find new jobs.� However, that transition time has apparently come to an end and the remaining 230 employees still at the company must now find other employment.

It was fairly obvious that UIQ was going to be put in a position where they would be facing their demise when Nokia bought the rights to the Symbian operating system and created the open source Symbian Foundation.� Nokia then announced that Symbian’s future would be with Nokia’s own S60 user interface, making UIQ’s user interface obsolete.

In the meantime Sony Ericsson decided to make the move to the Symbian Foundation Platform, which is basically Nokia’s S60, and Motorola has announced that they are moving their interests from UIQ to the Android platform.� These moves have proved to be the final few nails in the coffin for UIQ.

John Sandberg, chief executive of UIQ, claimed that, “There are no opportunities to create a new line of business in the current financial climate.� We got into a position where we have no customers, no product to sell, and therefore no income either.”

“There is not likely to be a buyer, although that’s up to the bankruptcy receiver, who has now taken over management of the company,” Sandberg went on to discuss.

Sandberg underlined the main cause of UIQ’s downfall, putting it down to Sony Ericsson and Motorola’s abandonment of the software maker.� “We were a company living on royalty fees from our intellectual property,” Sandberg said. “As the IP became free of charge, Sony Ericsson and Motorola decided to work with the Symbian Foundation, not UIQ. There was no business for us anymore. We continued working on existing projects for a while into November but, at the end of November, the customer that we were working for, Motorola, decided to not continue those projects. Effectively, we didn’t have anything to do any more.”

Sandberg also discussed the 230 employees that were now left to start 2009 looking for other employment.� Sandberg said, “Many people have already found new positions, but there are still 230 people here,” Sandberg said. “Some of them already have new jobs lined up, and there has been a lot of activity looking for jobs, and lots of companies interviewing our staff. But, of course, it’s been Christmas and it’s a pretty slow industry right now, so it’s taking time for people to get new jobs.”