Sony Ericsson has confirmed that it has ended development of new devices with the Symbian operating system as its base. This follows the recent release of its latest Symbian-based smart device in the Vivaz on AT&T earlier this month.
Sony Ericsson was one of the first major third-party Symbian licensees when it preceded to develop a competing yet quasi-compatible variant in UIQ with Motorola which was first released with the launch of the P800 in 2002. The operating system continued development until 2008 with the last UIQ products from Sony Ericsson and Motorola being released in the P1i and RIZR Z10 respectively. The UIQ Technology parent company filed for bankruptcy and its assets were absorbed into the Symbian Foundation that same year.
Sony Ericsson continued to develop Symbian-based devices after the UIQ Technology bankruptcy and absorption with the announcements of the Satio and Vivaz in 2009, though those would run the more conventional Nokia sourced Symbian S60 5th Edition before developing and releasing its first Windows Mobile and Android devices in the X1/X2 and X10 series in the same timeframe.
