Psion PLC
Encyclopedia
Psion is a designer and manufacturer of rugged mobile handheld computers for commercial and industrial applications. The company is headquartered in London, England with major operations in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada and additional company offices in Europe, the United States, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. It is a public company listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index
.
Psion's current operational business was formed in September 2000 from a merger of Psion and Canadian-based Teklogix Inc. and 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 works with its clients in the area of new and emerging technologies, including image capture, voice recognition and RFID. Psion has customers in more than 80 countries around the world, as well as operations in 14 countries.
Formed in 1980, Psion achieved its first successes as a consumer hardware company that developed the revolutionary Psion Organiser
as well as a whole range of more advanced, clamshell-design Personal Digital Assistant
s. Psion closed, or disposed of, all its previous operations and is now focused on rugged mobile computing solutions. It withdrew from the consumer devices marketplace in 2001.
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 computer
s, released under the Sinclair/Psion brand. Psion’s games for the ZX Spectrum included Chess, Chequered Flag
, Flight Simulator and the Horace series
.
The company name is an acronym standing for "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 managing director until 1999 and was chairman of the company until late 2009.
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.
, the world’s first handheld computer, in appearance resembling early games machines. In 1986, the vastly improved Psion Organiser II was released. Its success led the company into a decade long period of "Psion" Computer and operating system development. 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. It is often rumoured that EPOC stands for "Electronic Piece Of Cheese" however Colly Myers, who was Symbian's CEO from founding until 2002, said in an interview that it stood for 'epoch' and nothing more. This development effort produced the Psion Series 3 (1993–98) 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. 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.
in June 1998 in conjunction with Nokia
, Ericsson
and Motorola
. The OS was renamed the Symbian Operating System and was envisioned as the base for a new range of smartphone
s. Psion gave 130 key staff to the new company and retained a 31% shareholding in the spun-out business. The Symbian operating system powered 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, 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.
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.
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.
In January 2011, the company refreshed its corporate identity and developed a new logo, that it describes as an icon. It claims it did this to "demonstrate its new business model in action and to signal that it is no longer a consumer products company, which was symbolized by the old Psion logo".
At the same time it removed Teklogix from its operating company name to create a "clear, unifying, global identity".
and , which was applied for on 18 December 1996 and registered by USPTO on 21 November 2000. They used this trademark for the Psion netBook
product, discontinued in November 2003, and from October 2003, the NETBOOK PRO, later also discontinued.
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".
In response to the growing use of the term, on 23 December 2008 Psion Teklogix sent cease and desist letters to various parties including enthusiast website(s) demanding they no longer use the term "netbook".
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". 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.
Similar marks have been recently rejected by the USPTO citing a "likelihood of confusion" under section 2(d), including 'G NETBOOK' ( rejected 31 October 2008), MSI
's 'WIND NETBOOK' and Coby Electronics' 'COBY NETBOOK' ( rejected 13 January 2009)
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. 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, 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 2003–4, Psion Teklogix and its founder David Potter
expressed interest in Linux as the operating system for its devices as it divested from Symbian. 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.
The Embeddable Linux Kernel Subset
project has produced a small subset of Linux that runs on Psion Series 3 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.
FTSE 100 Index
The FTSE 100 Index, also called FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the footsie , is a share index of the 100 most highly capitalised UK companies listed on the London Stock Exchange....
.
Psion's current operational business was formed in September 2000 from a merger of Psion and Canadian-based Teklogix Inc. and 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 works with its clients in the area of new and emerging technologies, including image capture, voice recognition and RFID. Psion has customers in more than 80 countries around the world, as well as operations in 14 countries.
Formed in 1980, Psion achieved its first successes as a consumer hardware company that developed the revolutionary Psion Organiser
Psion Organiser
The Psion Organiser was the brand name of a range of pocket computer developed by the British company Psion in the 1980s. The Organiser I and Organiser II had a characteristic hard plastic sliding cover protecting a 6x6 keyboard with letters arranged alphabetically.Early Psions are very robust...
as well as a whole range of more advanced, clamshell-design Personal Digital Assistant
Personal digital assistant
A personal digital assistant , also known as a palmtop computer, or personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a personal information manager. Current PDAs often have the ability to connect to the Internet...
s. Psion closed, or disposed of, all its previous operations and is now focused on rugged mobile computing solutions. It withdrew from the consumer devices marketplace in 2001.
Early development
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
Sinclair ZX81
The ZX81 was a home computer produced by Sinclair Research and manufactured in Scotland by Timex Corporation. It was launched in the United Kingdom in March 1981 as the successor to Sinclair's ZX80 and was designed to be a low-cost introduction to home computing for the general public...
and ZX Spectrum
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
home computer
Home computer
Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...
s, released under the Sinclair/Psion brand. Psion’s games for the ZX Spectrum included Chess, Chequered Flag
Chequered Flag (video game)
Chequered Flag is a racing video game developed by Steve Kelly for Psion Software Ltd and published by Sinclair Research Ltd in 1983. It was the first driving game published for the ZX Spectrum and one of the first computer car simulators.-Gameplay:...
, Flight Simulator and the Horace series
Horace series
The Horace video game series was created in the 1980s by William Tang for Beam Software. The series comprised Hungry Horace, Horace Goes Skiing and Horace and the Spiders....
.
The company name is an acronym standing for "Potter Scientific Instruments", after the company's founder, David Potter
David Potter
David Edwin Potter, CBE, FREng is the founder and chairman of the microcomputer systems company Psion PLC., and Psion Teklogix after Psion's acquisition of Teklogix in the year 2000.-Early life:...
. The acronym PSI was already in use elsewhere in the world so "ON" was added to make the name PSION unique. David Potter remained managing director until 1999 and was chairman of the company until late 2009.
In early 1983, Sinclair approached Psion regarding the development of a suite of office applications for the forthcoming Sinclair QL
Sinclair QL
The Sinclair QL , was a personal computer launched by Sinclair Research in 1984, as the successor to the Sinclair ZX Spectrum...
personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
. 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
Word processor
A word processor is a computer application used for the production of any sort of printable material....
, database
Database
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
, spreadsheet
Spreadsheet
A spreadsheet is a computer application that simulates a paper accounting worksheet. It displays multiple cells usually in a two-dimensional matrix or grid consisting of rows and columns. Each cell contains alphanumeric text, numeric values or formulas...
and business graphics application. These were later ported to MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
, collectively called PC-Four, or Xchange in an enhanced version.
The Psion Organiser
1984 also marked Psion’s first foray into hardware; the Psion OrganiserPsion Organiser
The Psion Organiser was the brand name of a range of pocket computer developed by the British company Psion in the 1980s. The Organiser I and Organiser II had a characteristic hard plastic sliding cover protecting a 6x6 keyboard with letters arranged alphabetically.Early Psions are very robust...
, the world’s first handheld computer, in appearance resembling early games machines. In 1986, the vastly improved Psion Organiser II was released. Its success led the company into a decade long period of "Psion" Computer and operating system development. 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. It is often rumoured that EPOC stands for "Electronic Piece Of Cheese" however Colly Myers, who was Symbian's CEO from founding until 2002, said in an interview that it stood for 'epoch' and nothing more. This development effort produced the Psion Series 3 (1993–98) and the Psion MC-series laptops.
A second effort, dubbed Project Protea, produced the Series 5
Psion 5
The Psion Series 5 was a PDA from Psion. It came in two main variants, the Series 5 and the Series 5mx , the latter having a faster processor, clearer screen, and updated software. There was also a rare Series 5mx Pro, which differed only in having the operating system loaded into RAM and hence...
Psion for sale in 1997, a completely new product from the 32-bit hardware upwards through the OS, UI, and applications. 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
Windows CE
Microsoft Windows CE is an operating system developed by Microsoft for embedded systems. Windows CE is a distinct operating system and kernel, rather than a trimmed-down version of desktop Windows...
and the lower functionality approach of the Palm Pilot.
The Software Legacy
The 32-bit EPOC developed by Project Protea resulted in the eventual formation of Symbian Ltd.Symbian Ltd.
Symbian Ltd. was a software development and licensing company, known for the Symbian OS, a smartphone operating system, and other related technologies...
in June 1998 in conjunction with Nokia
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
, Ericsson
Ericsson
Ericsson , one of Sweden's largest companies, is a provider of telecommunication and data communication systems, and related services, covering a range of technologies, including especially mobile networks...
and Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
. The OS was renamed the Symbian Operating System and was envisioned as the base for a new range of smartphone
Smartphone
A smartphone is a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone. The first smartphones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant and a mobile phone or camera...
s. Psion gave 130 key staff to the new company and retained a 31% shareholding in the spun-out business. The Symbian operating system powered around 125 million mobile phones such as the Sony Ericsson P900
Sony Ericsson P900
The Sony Ericsson P900 is a Symbian OS v7.0 based smartphone from Sony Ericsson.It was introduced in 2003 and is the successor of the Sony Ericsson P800, and, like the P800 uses the UIQ platform....
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
Psion Wavefinder
The Psion Wavefinder was a computer peripheral for receiving digital audio broadcasting radio signals, made by Psion. It attached via USB to a personal computer, and had no loudspeakers or controls of its own, with only a flashing light on the device...
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, 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.
In 2000 Psion acquired Teklogix
Teklogix
-About The Company:Teklogix was created in 1967 by Lawrence Cragg together with a small group of engineers.The company focused on mini computer applications. It designed and built complete systems based upon DEC's PDP-8 computer, DEC's logic modules and purpose built logic...
in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
for £240 million, and merged its business-to-business division, Psion Enterprise, with the newly acquired company. Teklogix
Teklogix
-About The Company:Teklogix was created in 1967 by Lawrence Cragg together with a small group of engineers.The company focused on mini computer applications. It designed and built complete systems based upon DEC's PDP-8 computer, DEC's logic modules and purpose built logic...
was re-branded Psion Teklogix
Psion Teklogix
Psion Teklogix Inc. is the operational business of Psion, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange.Psion Teklogix is a global provider of solutions for mobile computing and wireless data collection...
. 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
Visto
Visto was a private US company located in Redwood Shores, CA. Visto sold Push e-mail products for mobile phones. The company acquired Good Technology in 2009 and renamed itself for the acquired company.- Visto the Company :...
(USA) in 2003.
In 2004, Psion announced its intention to dispose of the company's remaining Symbian shareholding to Nokia
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
, as they no longer regarded it as a core part of their strategy.
2010 onwards
Through its open innovation business model, Psion works with its customers and partners to design and build modular and customisable variants of its mobile hardware, software and services to address the needs of specific markets and industries. This collaborative development process happens via the company's open, online community, www.ingenuityworking.com. Launched in March 2010, Ingenuity Working achieved more than 35,000 visitors per month within its first six months.In January 2011, the company refreshed its corporate identity and developed a new logo, that it describes as an icon. It claims it did this to "demonstrate its new business model in action and to signal that it is no longer a consumer products company, which was symbolized by the old Psion logo".
At the same time it removed Teklogix from its operating company name to create a "clear, unifying, global identity".
Psion and the term Netbook
Psion registered the trademark NETBOOK in various territories, including European UnionEuropean Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
and , which was applied for on 18 December 1996 and registered by USPTO on 21 November 2000. They used this trademark for the Psion netBook
Psion Netbook
The Psion netBook is a small subnotebook type computer developed by Psion. Released in 1999, it was aimed at the mobile enterprise market.-Description:...
product, discontinued in November 2003, and from October 2003, the NETBOOK PRO, later also discontinued.
Intel started using the term netbook
Netbook
Netbooks are a category of small, lightweight, legacy-free, and inexpensive laptop computers.At their inception in late 2007 as smaller notebooks optimized for low weight and low cost — netbooks omitted certain features , featured smaller screens and keyboards, and offered reduced computing...
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".
In response to the growing use of the term, on 23 December 2008 Psion Teklogix sent cease and desist letters to various parties including enthusiast website(s) demanding they no longer use the term "netbook".
In early 2009 Intel sued Psion Teklogix
Psion Teklogix
Psion Teklogix Inc. is the operational business of Psion, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange.Psion Teklogix is a global provider of solutions for mobile computing and wireless data collection...
(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". 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.
Similar marks have been recently rejected by the USPTO citing a "likelihood of confusion" under section 2(d), including 'G NETBOOK' ( rejected 31 October 2008), MSI
Micro-Star International
Micro-Star International Co., Ltd is a Taiwan-based electronics company and one of the world's largest motherboard and video card manufacturers.-Overview:MSI is one of the top three motherboard and video card manufacturers worldwide...
's 'WIND NETBOOK' and Coby Electronics' 'COBY NETBOOK' ( rejected 13 January 2009)
Psion and Linux
Psion PLC had a lengthy, but distant, interest in LinuxLinux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
as an operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
on its electronic devices. In 1998, it supported the Linux7K project that had been initiated by Ed Bailey at Red Hat
Red Hat
Red Hat, Inc. is an S&P 500 company in the free and open source software sector, and a major Linux distribution vendor. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina with satellite offices worldwide....
, which was to port Linux to its Series 5 personal computer. 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, it did not come to fruition for Psion. The project soon transitioned to an informal open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
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
Psion Revo
The Psion Revo, launched in 1997, is a PDA from Psion. It is the successor to the Psion Series 3 and a light version of Psion 5mx. It is software-compatible with the 5mx and has the same processor but is more lightweight , and substantially smaller...
, Series 5 and 5MX, and Series 7 and netBook.
In 2003–4, Psion Teklogix and its founder David Potter
David Potter
David Edwin Potter, CBE, FREng is the founder and chairman of the microcomputer systems company Psion PLC., and Psion Teklogix after Psion's acquisition of Teklogix in the year 2000.-Early life:...
expressed interest in Linux as the operating system for its devices as it divested from Symbian. 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.
The Embeddable Linux Kernel Subset
Embeddable Linux Kernel Subset
The Embeddable Linux Kernel Subset is a Unix-like operating system kernel that can run on Intel 8086-compatible microprocessors. ELKS, formerly known as Linux-8086, is a small subset of Linux and can run on machines with limited processor and memory resources, including machines with 16-bit...
project has produced a small subset of Linux that runs on Psion Series 3 PDAs.
PDAs
- Psion Organiser and Psion Organiser IIPsion OrganiserThe Psion Organiser was the brand name of a range of pocket computer developed by the British company Psion in the 1980s. The Organiser I and Organiser II had a characteristic hard plastic sliding cover protecting a 6x6 keyboard with letters arranged alphabetically.Early Psions are very robust...
- Psion Series 3, 3a, 3c & 3mxPsion 3The Psion Series 3 range of personal digital assistants were made by Psion PLC. The four main variants are the Psion Series 3 , the Psion Series 3a , the Psion Series 3c , and the Psion Series 3mx , all sized 165 × 85 × 22 mm...
- Psion SienaPsion SienaThe Psion Siena is a personal digital assistant made by Psion PLC and was released in 1996.Two versions of the Siena were released, one containing 512KB of memory and the second with 1MB....
- Psion Series 5, 5mx & 5mx Pro
- Psion RevoPsion RevoThe Psion Revo, launched in 1997, is a PDA from Psion. It is the successor to the Psion Series 3 and a light version of Psion 5mx. It is software-compatible with the 5mx and has the same processor but is more lightweight , and substantially smaller...
- Psion netBookPsion NetbookThe Psion netBook is a small subnotebook type computer developed by Psion. Released in 1999, it was aimed at the mobile enterprise market.-Description:...
- Psion Netpad
- Psion Series 7
- Psion Teklogix Netbook Pro (Windows CE)
- Psion Workabout
All these PDAs except the Psion netpad have a small keyboard
Computer keyboard
In computing, a keyboard is a typewriter-style keyboard, which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys, to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches...
, which excepting the Organiser and Workabout was of the standard QWERTY
QWERTY
QWERTY is the most common modern-day keyboard layout. The name comes from the first six letters appearing in the topleft letter row of the keyboard, read left to right: Q-W-E-R-T-Y. The QWERTY design is based on a layout created for the Sholes and Glidden typewriter and sold to Remington in the...
layout, or a regional variation thereof.
External links
- A Brief History Of Psion's Machines
- A detailed history of Psion around the time of the Series 5
- Abandoned Psion software collected
- OpenPsion: A project to port linux to Psion Handhelds!
- Psion shareware library and tips/articles
- Psion website
- Psion's online community - ingenuityworking.com
- The History of Psion
- Unofficial Psion F.A.Q