Motorola's UIQ stake

It was announced today that Motorola will acquire a 50% stake in UIQ from SEMC.
This has been planned for a while but one factor holding things back was internal politics in Motorola.
The Symbian UIQ platform occupies a cost/performance segment too similar to Motorola’s much-vaunted but little-seen Linux Java platform aka MOTOMAGX
Those in the Motorola hierarchy who championed LJ tried to kill off the funding for Symbian UIQ. The truth is these people lost the argument and either got fired or were made to resign. Motorola has spent millions of dollars over the last few years trying to get its Linux Java platform off the ground. The platform should have given them the cool user-experience that most of their devices lack at the moment.

In summary, LJ is a failure.
The results of all those millions of dollars have given us the user-experience of the Z6, V8, U9 and soon-to-be-announced E8.
Note, these are all 2G phones with some eye-candy over and above the terrible old P2K/Synergy platform used in the likes of the V3, K1, Z3 etc.
Major network operators, especially in Europe, want 3G phones
They want software platforms that can easily be adapted to accommodate local services and new applications.

Much of this can be offered by the Symbian/UIQ platform.
Symbian is already well-established as a mobile device OS and the roadmap is well-advanced in terms of accommodating new technologies and services,
UIQ still has some way to go to get the level of S60 but investment from both SEMC and Motorola will accelerate its progress.

As a result of today’s announcement, I would expect to see most, if not all, Motorola 3G consumer devices become Symbian/UIQ phones in the short to mid term.
At least two of these devices, codenamed Skarven and Texel, have already been leaked on the internet.

As technology progresses rapidly, manufacturers are able to fit smaller 3G boards with more multimedia power and camera modules with a higher megapixel count into svelte designs.

Wouldn’t it be great to have the functionality of Symbian multimedia phone in the clothing of a RAZR, SLVR or PEBL?
Additionally, it would be great to borrow some of the touch-screen aspects of the iPhone UI and merge them with what we’ve already seen on the RAZR2 or E8.

Have I seen the future? I certainly hope so.