UIQ which was the user interface on top of Symbian developed by SonyEricsson and Motorola, both companies are concentrating on other operating systems and the UIQ business unit has filed for bankruptcy protection.

The main competitor is Nokia’s S60 (which also sits on top of Symbian) and it looks like the Finns have won the user interface race, though there’s still a chance someone may buy the UIQ unit, though it’s looking unlikely especially as Symbian is being made open source.

Nokia is trying to regain it’s market position in the smartphone/touchscreen market – and their phones run Symbian/S60. They just need to ensure they keep it advanced enough so it can compete with Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s Blackberries.