Psion PLC is a consumer hardware company mostly known for developing the Psion Organiser as well as a whole range of more advanced, clamshell-design Personal Digital Assistants. Psion today comprises one remaining operating division, the Canadian Psion Teklogix, having closed or disposed of all its previous operations. Although its actual operations are based in Canada, Psion itself is a British company.
History
Psion was established in 1980 as a software house with a close relationship with Sinclair Research. The company developed games and other software for the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum home computers, released under the Sinclair brand. Its name is said to mean "Potter Scientific Instruments Or Nothing", a reference to its founder Sir David Potter. Psion's games for the ZX Spectrum included "Psion Chess", and Horace Goes Skiing.
In early 1983, Sinclair approached Psion regarding the development of a suite of office applications for the forthcoming Sinclair QL personal computer. Psion were already working on a project in this area and the QL was launched in 1984, bundled with Quill, Archive, Abacus and Easel; respectively a word processor, database, spreadsheet and business graphics application. These were later ported to MS-DOS, collectively called PC-Four, or Xchange in an enhanced version.
1984 also marked Psion's first foray into hardware; the Psion Organiser, an early example of a personal digital assistant, resembling an enlarged pocket calculator. In 1986 the vastly improved Psion Organiser II was released, whose success led the company into a long period of PDA and operating system development. In 1987 Psion began development of its "SIBO" family of devices and its own new multitasking operating system called EPOC to run its PDA products. It is rumoured that EPOC stands for "Electronic Piece Of Cheese". This development effort produced the Psion MC-series laptops and Psion Series 3 and Series 5 products.
In 1989 Psion purchased Dacom, and rebranded the new business "Psion Dacom" (later rebranded to "Psion Connect"). This business focused on modems and connectivity products, in particular the Gold Card range of PC cards for laptops.
In the latter half of the 1990s Psion saw the potential for convergence between PDAs and mobile phones, which resulted in the eventual formation of Symbian Ltd. in June 1998 in conjunction with leading companies in the sector, notably Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola. Psion retained a 20-30% shareholding in the spun-out business. The EPOC operating system became known as the Symbian Operating System, which today powers a number of leading smartphones such as the Sony Ericsson P900 series.
Psion started to withdraw from its consumer markets in 2002 in the face of decreasing margins and increased competition from keyboardless PDAs from companies such as Palm, Microsoft, and HP / Compaq iPAQ. The PDA, which was once a niche market, had become commoditized, and the Microsoft Pocket PC operating system was gaining market share. In addition, the first smartphones were beginning to enter the market. The final blow for Psion's PDA business came when Motorola pulled out of a joint project with Psion to bring a PDA-phone to market. In the new global marketplace for PDAs/smartphones it was difficult for a traditionally engineering-led business to compete.
In 2000 Psion acquired Teklogix (Canada), and merged its business-to-business division, Psion Enterprise, with the newly acquired company. Teklogix was re-branded PsionTeklogix. This division now forms the core of Psion Plc's business.
In 2002 Psion created a new division called Psion Software. This business developed push email solutions for Symbian smartphones, Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes. This business was sold to Visto (USA) in 2003.
In 2004, Psion announced its intention to dispose of the company's remaining Symbian shareholding to Nokia, as they no longer regarded it as a core part of their strategy. Although opposed by many shareholders, the large shareholding of the founder, David Potter, ensured the vote was carried.
Having closed or disposed of all its previous operations, Psion today comprises one operating division, Psion Teklogix.
Sources
Wikipedia.com
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