Sony Ericsson have given us all a sneak peak of its latest UIQ user interface, which will come to Sony Ericsson phones in 2008. Unsurprisingly, the new interface shares a certain, er, similarity with Apple's iPhone. In fact, with a squint, it's hard to tell the two apart!

All this comes on the back of Nokia's latest user interface update for its S60 smartphones, the S60 Touch, which it announced a couple of weeks ago. The Touch also offers a similar user experience to the iPhone.

When Apple first released the iPhone, it was obvious that it would disrupt the mobile phone industry, as it made existing phone interfaces look like dinosaurs. It's a welcome sight to see every other phone manufacturer release similar interfaces, therefore, as it means next year's phones won't just have caught up with Apple, but in many cases will leap ahead.

A step change in the usability of phones is always welcome, and it's about time too, as the majority of phones prior to the iPhone had focused so much of their efforts on the hardware that they'd ignored the whole user experience.

So congrats to the iPhone, and congrats to the encumbent phone manufacturers, as we can look forward to buying a proper mobile phone with decent features that isn't as ridiculously locked and under-featured as the iPhone.

[Source: GearFuse]