Symbian loses out in Sony Ericsson R&D reorganization

Sony Ericsson yesterday announced a company reorganisation with the aim of rationalizing its R&D divisions. 2,000 job losses had been announced back in July,  but the announcement highlighted where these cuts would hit.

User interface development will now be centered in Beijing with significant job cuts due in the company’s North Carolina operation, although there will be new hiring in its California development center where the  focus is primarily on Windows Mobile devices such as the new Xperia X1.

Symbian development hasn’t been entirely abandoned, although there will be a considerable gap until Sony Ericsson’s next Symbian devices appear.

Symbian development will focus on the company’s Lund office, near Malmo, which will become the company’s new Symbian “competence hub”. Symbian application development isn’t a priority, sources suggest, with the focus instead on integration.

Yesterday’s announcement made no mention the UIQ office at Ronneby, Sweden. UIQ is the joint venture with Motorola which began life in the 1990s as an Ericsson R&D lab, and which had invested heavily in system and application development for the UIQ user interface for Symbian devices.

UIQ was the first casualty of the announcement by the acquisition of Symbian by Nokia back in June, as Sony Ericsson decided it would develop new UIs based on Nokia’s S60 instead. UIQ’s London and Budapest offices were closed, and deep redundancies at Ronneby left the office as little more than a stub.

I recently picked up the Sony Ericsson G900 and have to say that after 3 or more years using Windows Mobile, the UIQ interface was actually a joy to use. Let’s hope SE Symbian based devices don’t disappear forever.

(Article extracts courtesy The Register UK)