“Since 2005 Sony Ericsson has been facing some difficulties when developing the smartphone P-Series, caused by the passivity of UIQ, the department of Symbian consortium. The main problem was the scheme of development of all groundworks for this shell. Each new module, program, UI had to be provided for free access to all part owners of UIQ. Consequently, Sony Ericsson faced lots of obstacles, as when elaborating every add-on, the company had to coordinate it with Motorola, Samsung. Nokia also didn’t miss a chance to pour oil on the flames, being the owner of a part of the department. In spite of its insignificant activity in the work at UIQ, the Finnish company had a great benefit, as it was well informed about Sony Ericsson’s work and could utilize some interesting ideas in its S60. However, it was Sony Ericsson who had the controlling interest of UIQ, and this fact allowed the company to buy out the rights for UIQ of other co-owners. Only Motorola stood up against buy-out, as UIQ was important for them due to the developments of the Z-Series smartphones. Nevertheless, they didn’t foil the Sony Ericsson plans, as the company got almost the whole UIQ with almost 90% shares. Thus the American vendor had to content itself with the “bare” UIQ version, while Sony Ericsson obtained the main things – control and independence.” Read more here: