Sony Mobile Evangelist

CellPhoneSoft has suspended the development of all its ongoing UIQ projects. This is pretty sad news, as they were one of the primary developers of this ailing and now dead platform. Here's what Zed from CPS had to say:

As most of you know, the original plan at CPS was to keep on supporting UIQ during the entire year 2009, as an attempt to balance the sad fate of the most advanced smartphone platform. CPS has planned to release a number of new power applications, including profile manager, WiFi scanner, file finder, macro player, key mapper, furthermore possibly call recorder, answering machine, and more. Upgrades were prepared for all earlier released products, including Swiss Manager Pro 2.00 with major new features.

All the projects mentioned above are now suspended. The single reason behind the decision is that a large proportion of the remaining UIQ users choose to use software illegally. The overall refusal to pay for work investment by the developer in fact prevents further developments. In essence, most users opted for having the available software for free, rather than for having more and better software.

I feel sorry for those who think differently - for the honest users, who would surely deserve further upgrades and new products. Your rights have been restricted by a handful of software thieves craving for popularity, supported by a large number of apparently underprivileged people.

The current decision can still be reversed, provided the availability and use of illegal software decreases. I'm not sure how to achieve this, but the possibility is there. In any case, those readers who know where the crack-fest is taking place, could tell the "UIQ-fans" over there about their great success in putting yet another (the last?) nail in the coffin of UIQ...