UIQ have announced the launch of its new Developer Program to co-incide with the launch of the public SDK for UIQ 3 and the launch of the Sony Ericsson P990. The web portal (to be launched at the Smartphone Show) will allow free registration and enable access to content and services aimed at helping the UIQ developer. UIQ note that 'the web portal will offer all the information and services expected to support a developer community, such as news, development kits and tools downloads, documentation, references, tutorials and guides, knowledge base, Frequently Asked Questions, code samples, technical articles, tips, community events information, and, at a later stage, more advanced services such as development, marketing and business support'. We'll be talking to UIQ at the Smartphone Show to bring you more on this.

UIQ Developer Program launched to support development on UIQ 3

London, UK, October 10, 2005 - UIQ Technology launches its new Developer Program based on UIQ 3 and opens the Program's web portal with free membership registration. The program offers access to all content and services upon registration.

Following today's announcements of the first public version of the UIQ 3 software development platform and the first smartphone based on UIQ 3, the Sony Ericsson P990, UIQ Technology launches its new Developer Program with the purpose of gathering support resources for all the developers spread on different types of devices and manufacturers in one place. The new UIQ Developer Program is supported by Symbian's own developer program as well as UIQ licensees, and will serve Symbian OS developers with support for UIQ 3.0 onwards.

UIQ 3 enables mobile phone manufacturers to create a portfolio of diversified phones on the same software development platform, minimizing the engineering effort and shortening time to market. Independent software vendors and developers will benefit from being able to use one single codeline to potentially target multiple handsets from different manufacturers as an application will be able to run on any device built on UIQ 3 regardless of form factor or network operator branding, unless specific phone features or extensions have been used. With this in mind, UIQ Technology has decided to create and run a developer program supporting UIQ 3 and onwards.

The web portal (http://developer.uiq.com) to be launched at the Smartphone Show in London this week, will be the primary communication channel for the program. This launch is a first version of the program which will evolve over time with additional offerings and services available, to a large extent based on developer feedback.

The web portal will offer all the information and services expected to support a developer community, such as news, development kits and tools downloads, documentation, references, tutorials and guides, knowledge base, Frequently Asked Questions, code samples, technical articles, tips, community events information, and, at a later stage, more advanced services such as development, marketing and business support. It is free of charge to sign up for the UIQ Developer Program. All registrants can participate in the market's first UIQ 3 discussion forum and get access to all downloadable material such as SDKs (Software Development Kits), documentation and guides. The first public UIQ 3 beta SDK will be made available for download on October 26, 2005.

UIQ Technology will through its UIQ Developer Program provide support for general platform and SDK questions, whereas vendor and device specific extensions are to be directed to each device manufacturer and their developer program if available. Sony Ericsson Developer World (www.SonyEricsson.com/developer), for example, will publish Sony Ericsson specific extensions and API's for the P990 as separate packages on its own developer portal. They will also provide links to UIQ Technology's web site for download of the UIQ 3 SDK, while continuing to provide developer support for previous versions of UIQ (UIQ 2.0 and 2.1 for the P800, P900 and P910 series).

"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 Wikström, Head of Developer Program at UIQ Technology.

"UIQ Technology's new developer program ensures that Symbian OS developers are offered the best tools, resources and information to develop for Symbian OS and UIQ. With this new program, Symbian OS developers have yet another exciting opportunity to be part of the expanding Symbian developer community and smartphone applications market" Bruce Carney, Head of Developer Marketing & Services, Symbian.

"We are very pleased with the launch of the UIQ 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."