To coincide with Sony Ericsson's announcement of the new P990 smartphone on October 10, 2005, UIQ Technology presented the first public version of the new UIQ 3 platform based on Symbian OS. At the same time, UIQ Technology unveiled its new UIQ Developer Program.

UIQ 3: open software platform
The UIQ 3 platform is an open software platform, based on Symbian OS version 9, allowing developers to potentially target all UIQ 3 based phones from different manufacturers, using one single codeline. Applications will automatically receive the look and feel of the device they run on without the need for the developer to write extra code for it. Updates and bug fixes will be identical for all target platforms, and only one code update is needed to propagate it to all UIQ 3 based handsets. Developers will benefit from shorter time-to-market since code written for UIQ 3 will be identical through all handsets, unless device specific features have been used.

UIQ Developer Program
Developers can now register for the new UIQ Developer Program to find more detailed documentation, such as a getting started tutorial, and participate in the market's first UIQ 3 discussion forum. On October 26, 2005, the first public beta release of the UIQ 3 SDK will be available for download from the UIQ Developer Program web portal.

What's the difference between the UIQ and Sony Ericsson developer programs?
Sony Ericsson Developer World will handle Sony Ericsson specific questions relating to the P990 and SDK extensions, and continue to provide developer support for previous UIQ versions (UIQ 2.0 and 2.1 for P800, P900 and P910). The new UIQ Developer Program will provide platform-generic developer support for UIQ 3.0 and the UIQ SDK.

"UIQ 3 provides a reasonable 'breaking point' where UIQ Technology takes over the main responsibility for supporting UIQ developers. We agreed it would be less disruptive to the community as a whole if Sony Ericsson Developer World continues providing support for the earlier versions of UIQ until products based on UIQ 2.0 and 2.1 have been phased out from the market," says Peter Wikstrom, Head of Developer Program at UIQ Technology.

"We are very pleased with the launch of UIQ's Developer Program," says Ulf Wretling, Director & Head of Content Development at Sony Ericsson. "It's the next natural step now that UIQ 3 enables the creation of a broader portfolio of handset types from various licensees, requiring support to software developers targeting multiple vendors. We are happy to recommend our own developer community to start using the UIQ Developer Program for any platform-generic support queries. We will collaborate with UIQ to ensure a smooth transition for developers at the same time as we continue to support our smartphone application developers through Sony Ericsson Developer World with P990 specific extensions, tools, tips and documentation."

Sony Ericsson extensions and SDKs
Sony Ericsson specific extensions and beta APIs will be made available from Sony Ericsson Developer World during Q4 2005. The extension package will include the Sony Ericsson specific Vibration API and Bluetooth Keyboard API as well as emulator components such as fonts and skins.

Given that the new P990 supports both CLDC and CDC Java, Sony Ericsson Developer World will also publish a specific CDC SDK for Java applications development in Q4 2005. CLDC will be supported by a new version of the existing Sony Ericsson SDK for the Java ME Platform, and will be published later in October 2005.

More information:

• UIQ 3>>
• UIQ Developer Program>>
• Sony Ericsson P990>>