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Psion (company)

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This article is about consumer hardware company. For other uses, see Psion (company) (disambiguation).
Psion
Company typePublic (LSE: PON)
IndustryComputers
Founded1980
HeadquartersLondon, UK
Key people
David Potter, (Chairman)
John Conoley (CEO)
Revenue£199.7 million (2007)
£9.5 million (2007)
£7.0 million (2007)
Number of employees
1,229 (2007)
Websitewww.psion.com

Psion PLC (LSE: PON) is a consumer hardware company that developed the Psion Organiser as well as a whole range of more advanced, clamshell-design Personal Digital Assistants. Psion is now focused, through its Psion Teklogix operation, on rugged mobile computing solutions. Its operations are based in Canada but its Head Office is in London. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

Psion's operational business, Psion Teklogix, is a global provider of solutions for mobile computing and wireless data collection. The Group's products and services include rugged mobile hardware, secure wireless networks, robust software, professional services and exceptional support programs. Psion Teklogix is committed to helping its customers reap the benefits of new and emerging technologies, including image capture, voice recognition and RFID. With over three decades of industry experience, Psion Teklogix has customers in more than 80 countries around the world, and over 36 sales and support offices in 23 countries.

History

Early development

Psion was established in 1980 as a software house with a close relationship with Sinclair Research.[1] The company developed games and other software for the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum home computers, released under the Sinclair/Psion brand. Its name means "Potter Scientific Instruments." after the company's founder David Potter. The acronym PSI was already in use elsewhere in the world so ON was added to make the name PSION unique. David Potter remained and managing director until 1999 and currently is still chairman of the company. Psion's games for the ZX Spectrum included Chess, Chequered Flag, Flight Simulator and the Horace series.[1]

In early 1983, Sinclair approached Psion regarding the development of a suite of office applications for the forthcoming Sinclair QL personal computer.[1] 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.[1] These were later ported to MS-DOS, collectively called PC-Four, or Xchange in an enhanced version.[1]

The Psion Organiser

Main article: Psion Organiser

1984 also marked Psion's first foray into hardware; the Psion Organiser, the world's first handheld computer, in appearance resembling early games machines.[1] In 1986 the vastly improved Psion Organiser II was released, whose success led the company into a decade long period of "Psion" Computer and operating system development.[1] It included a simple-to-use database programming language, OPL, which sparked a large independent software market. In 1987 Psion began development of its "SIBO" ("SIxteen Bit Organiser") family of devices and its own new multitasking operating system called EPOC to run its PDA products.[1] It is often rumoured that EPOC stands for "Electronic Piece Of Cheese" however Colly Myers, (who was Symbian's first CEO until 2002),[2] said in an interview that it stood for 'epoch' and nothing more. This development effort produced the Psion Series 3 (1993–1998) and the Psion MC-series laptops.

A second effort, dubbed Project Protea, produced the Series 5 Psion for sale in 1997, a completely new product from the 32-bit hardware upwards through the OS, UI, and applications.[1] It is still remembered for its high quality, especially its keyboard which despite its size allowed for touch-typing. But the entirely new feel of the product, and the removal of certain familiar quirks, alienated the loyal Series 3 userbase - who tended to stick with their robust PDAs rather than upgrade. Psion was also challenged by the arrival of cheaper devices running Microsoft's Windows CE and the lower functionality approach of the Palm Pilot.

Recent developments

The 32-bit EPOC developed by Project Protea resulted in the eventual formation of Symbian Ltd. in June 1998 in conjunction with Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola.[1] The OS was renamed the Symbian Operating System and was envisioned as the base for a new range of smartphones. Psion gave 130 key staff to the new company and retained a 31% shareholding in the spun-out business. The Symbian operating system as of 2007 powers around 125 million mobile phones such as the Sony Ericsson P900 series.

The development of new and updated products by Psion slowed after the Symbian spin-off. Other products failed or had limited success - a Psion Siemens' GSM device, a Series 5 based STB, the Wavefinder DAB radio, an attempt to add Dragon's speech recognition software to a PDA, Ericsson cancelled a Series 5MX derived smartphone project in 2001.

Psion had sold its sole manufacturing plant in 1999 and started to withdraw from its PDA markets in late 2001,[3] shedding 250 of 1,200 staff and writing-off £40 million. The PDA, which was once a niche market, had become a global horizontal marketplace where it was difficult for Psion to compete. The final blow for Psion's Organiser and PDA business came in January 2001 when Motorola pulled out of a joint project with Psion, Samsung, and Parthus, to create "Odin", an ARM-based PDA-phone.[1]

In 2000 Psion acquired Teklogix in Canada for £240 million, and merged its business-to-business division, Psion Enterprise, with the newly acquired company. Teklogix was re-branded Psion Teklogix. This division now forms the core of Psion Plc's business.[4]

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.[1]

Having closed or disposed of all its previous operations, Psion today comprises one operating division, Psion Teklogix.

Psion and the term Netbook

Psion registered the trademark NETBOOK in various territories, including European Union Template:Community trademark and U.S. Trademark 75,215,401, which was applied for on 18 December 1996 and registered by USPTO on 21 November 2000. They used this trademark[5] for the Psion netBook product, discontinued in November 2003,[6] and from October 2003, the NETBOOK PRO, later also discontinued.[7]

Intel started using the term netbook in March 2008 as a generic term to describe "small laptops that are designed for wireless communication and access to the Internet", believing they were "not offering a branded line of computers here" and "see no naming conflict".[8]

In response to the growing use of the term, on 23 December 2008 Psion Teklogix sent cease and desist letters[9] to various parties including enthusiast website(s) demanding they no longer use the term "netbook".[10][11]

In early 2009 Intel sued Psion Teklogix (US & Canada) and Psion (UK) in the Federal Court, seeking a cancellation of the trademark and an order enjoining Psion from asserting any trademark rights in the term "netbook", a declarative judgement regarding their use of the term, attorneys' fees, costs and disbursements and "such other and further relief as the Court deems just and proper".[12][13] The suit was settled out of court, and on June 2, 2009 Psion announced that the company was withdrawing all of its trademark registrations for the term "Netbook" and that Psion agreed to "waive all its rights against third parties in respect of past, current or future use" of the term.[14]

Similar marks have been recently rejected by the USPTO citing a "likelihood of confusion" under section 2(d), including 'G NETBOOK' (U.S. Trademark 77,527,311 rejected 31 October 2008), MSI's 'WIND NETBOOK' (U.S. Trademark 77,580,272) and Coby Electronics' 'COBY NETBOOK' (U.S. Trademark 77,590,174 rejected 13 January 2009)

Psion and Linux

Psion PLC had a lengthy, but distant, interest in Linux as an operating system on its electronic devices. In 1998, it supported the Linux7K project that had been initiated by Ed Bailey at Red Hat, which was to port Linux to its Series 5 personal computer.[15][16][17] The project was named after the Cirrus Logic PS-7110 chip of the Series 5. Although this project was one of the earliest attempts to port Linux to a handheld computer,[18] it did not come to fruition for Psion. The project soon transitioned to an informal open source project at Calcaria.net that kept the name Linux7K. After the project transitioned again to sourceforge.net, the project's name was changed to a more general name "PsiLinux", and more recently to "OpenPsion". The project has developed Linux kernels and filesystems for the Revo, Series 5 and 5MX, and Series 7 and netBook.

In 2003-2004, Psion Teklogix and its founder David Potter expressed interest in Linux as the operating system for its devices as it divested from Symbian.[19][20][21] However, the only result of that interest was Linux as the operating system on a limited number of custom NetBook Pro's designed for a hospital setting.[22]

The Embeddable Linux Kernel Subset project has produced a small subset of Linux that runs on Psion Series 3 PDAs.[23]

PDAs

All these PDAs except the Psion netpad have a small keyboard, which excepting the Organiser and Workabout was of the standard QWERTY layout, or a regional variation thereof.

Laptops

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Litchfield, Steve (1998; updated 2005). "The History of Psion". Palmtop Magazine. Retrieved 2008-12-27. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  2. ^ Frankal, Elliot (2005-09-04). "Ask and it shall be texted to you". The Observer. Retrieved 2008-12-27. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  3. ^ Needham, Mark (February 19, 2004). "We Remembered Psion and Wept" (PDF). PC Pro. Retrieved 2008-08-06.
  4. ^ "Psion buys Teklogix". BBC News. 2000-07-12. Retrieved 2008-12-27. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  5. ^ Psion netbook news release
  6. ^ Psion Discontinued Products
  7. ^ NETBOOK PRO discontinued
  8. ^ Paul Bergevin - VP and GM of Intel’s Global Communication Group
  9. ^ Psion Cease and Desist Letter
  10. ^ jkOnTheRun
  11. ^ Psion threatens netbook sites over trademarks
  12. ^ Complaint for Injunctive Relief, Declaratory Judgment & Cancellation of Federal Trademark
  13. ^ Intel Wants 'Netbook' Trademark Canceled
  14. ^ Psion, Intel settle 'Netbook' trademark dispute
  15. ^ Jones, Marc Ambasna (May 11, 1999). "Opinion: Mobile Linux for Bluetooth - spanner for Microsoft?". ZDNet. ZDNet UK. Retrieved 2007-06-17. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  16. ^ Jones, Marc Ambasna (April 23, 1999). "Mobile Linux for Psion pressures Win CE". ZDNet. ZDNet UK. Retrieved 2007-06-17. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  17. ^ Almesberger, Werner (1999). "Linux in the pocket - The Linux-7k project". Linux Symposium, Ottawa (abstract). Retrieved 2007-06-17. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); External link in |publisher= (help)
  18. ^ Maddox, Paul (May 4, 2000). "Linux for handhelds: fact or fiction?". Wireless Developer Network (Linux Today). Retrieved 2007-06-17. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); External link in |publisher= (help)
  19. ^ Kewney, Guy (February 9, 2004). "Psion looks past Windows to Linux as Nokia buys Symbian". newswireless.net. newswireless.net. Retrieved 2007-06-17. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  20. ^ Partridge, Chris (July 8, 2003). "Psion prepares the way for the one true OS". vunet.com. Retrieved 2007-06-17. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  21. ^ Kewney, Guy (February 2004). "What Will Become the Next Scion of Psion?". eWeek. Ziff Davis Media Inc. Retrieved 2007-06-17. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  22. ^ Glover, Tony (May 23, 2004). "NHS deal with Psion heralds move away from Windows". The Business Online. Retrieved 2007-06-17. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  23. ^ "Introduction to ELKS": current status
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