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Psion Chucks In The Towel For Consumer Devices
chuckT writes: "After a troubled few months, Psion, makers of the world's finest (if a little long in the tooth) handhelds, have finally withdrawn from the consumer market, and now appear to be concentrating on the corporate market. I switched to a 5mx a while ago, having used Palms, and loved the Psion. A beautifully thought out machine, I particularly liked OPL (the bundled BASIC-like language) and the fold-out keyboard. They had a real opportunity to be as successful as Palm, but somehow, being a British company, managed to cock it up. Bloody typical." Besides the loss of 250 jobs as Psion, this also sounds like a blow to Bluetooth, which Psion's CEO calls "late on the uptake and much smaller than anticipated" in the BBC piece.
The first spreadsheet I ever used was written by Psion. It was called VU-CALC and it ran on the Sinclair Spectrum. (Z80 at 0.4 MHz with 48K RAM!) They also had a 3D modelling package with wireframe and (sort of) ray-traced mode called VU-3D. Later on they wrote an office suite for the Sinclair QL/ ICL OPD. And the Psion Organiser was the first real PDA. And then there was EPOC32. And best of all, the revolutionary idea of a PDA with a good keyboard.
And now they will instead be "providing digital networks for businesses." Sigh.
I have an S5 and it absolutely blows the competition away in terms of usability.
Lovely keyboard, nice big screen, good battery life, fantastically useful applications; I basically don't need a desktop PC anymore.
The real problem is your typical British management incompetence.
Deleted
Penicilin - Alexander Fleming (Scottish)
Also:
The pneumatic tyre: Dunlop
The telephone: Alexander Graham Bell
The television: Baird
The thermos flask: Dewar
Anaesthesia: James Young Simpson
Kaleidosocpe: Brewster
Steam engine: James Watt
Vacuum cleaner: Hubert Booth
Radar: Watson-Watt
There's more but i'm getting bored. With TV, telephone, the steam engine and pneumatic tyres alone, Scotland should be one of the richest countries in the world, but, no.
Deleted
Including GIS applications.
Free GIS applications even.
Deleted
Let's be clear. Compaq's iPaq revenue was higher than Palm, but by no means does this mean that the iPaq is the sales leader. Here's a link to the sales numbers for May for instance:
Sales figures for May
Psion may be better then the iPaq. I would love to own a 5mx. But good luck trying to find one in North America. I have never seen a 5 or 5mx for sale. It has always been a special order item (ie expensive), or, more often then not, a no longer carried item.
... but, according to The Register, you're something like 12th in broadband availability, and Oftel (the UK's "winged watchdog" for telcoms regulation) is asleep at the switch.
:-(.
So you'll get a cool phone but no DSL connection
D
(The Register: http://www.theregister.co.uk/ - a sardonic take on IT news from the UK).
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You will want to use PLPtools to transfer files from and to Linux (and perhaps other Unix-like systems). It can NFS-mount your Psion disk(s).
PSION have some nice patents
like that keyboard
they are perfect for connecting to RS232 ports and sitting in lectures despirately trying to deal with the slashdot effect on your webserver through your mobile phone and a terminal
but remeber that it was the wavefinder that killed them kerbango was a cock up and psion did not learn from them
psion make alot of things for the supermarkets like you see those guys holding when they do the stock take so they will not disapear
symbian seems to have its head screwed on right so its not all gloom and doom
regards
john jones
That's The Poseidon Adventure. You need a large cruise liner patch.
--
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"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
It's on its way to the States, but not expected until beginning of 2002 acording to this Nokia page (with specs and some nice pics too!)
http://www.nokia.com/phones/9290/index.html
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
A little planning goes a long way...
For anybody interested, Psion's RevoPlus, rebadged as Diamond Mako, is being sold all over the net for ~$100 a pop. Travel modem is another $60 or so, and of course these things can talk IR to GSM phones.
Try, e.g. www.outpost.com, www.sparco.com.
Kaa
Kaa
Kaa's Law: In any sufficiently large group of people most are idiots.
Somehow I think Symbian is getting closer to
be the Psion consumer branch. Look at the
Nokia 9210, this is just a Psion Series 5 +
phone + java +...
What do you think?
Y'know, I honestly can't see why so many people buy iPaqs. They're bigger and more expensive than Psion 5s, have a lower resolution screen and you're stuck with inputting the data by pen. On my Psion, I can type with almost the speed and accuracy I manage on a normal PC...
Are that many people really prepared to pay more to lose so much and only gain a colour screen?
This makes me really sad. I _love_ my Psion 5 - it's fast enough, light enough, runs for plenty of time on the batteries. Epoc Office is really rather good, that keyboard is amazing and I'll never understand how they've made something that small that good.
It's absolutely leagues ahead of my old Palm III and I can't see myself ever going back to a PalmOS machine. That thing really felt like a toy, wasn't as well made by a mile and had far more basic software. The screen was too small to use for anything intensive and Graffiti was just inaccurate.
Sadly, this leaves me without a decent alternative.
I _want_ a machine with a keyboard, it's just better. No, a Palm keyboard isn't good enough. If I get an HP Jornada it's bigger, heavier and ludicrously expensive. I mean, I could get a Psion Series 7 for less! Look at them and you see instantly why people think Palms are a good thing
I can't use Amigas (well, Amigas with another 7 years of development ideally...) at home, soon I won't be able to use Psions on the move. Why do the good ones die young?
Greg
(Inside a nuclear plant)
Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!
As the owner at one time or another of an Organiser 2, Series 3, 3a, 5 and 5mx (currently), and as someone who dabbled in programming them in OPL, Java and C++, I'm deeply moved by this news. Being a UK citizen makes it doubly galling.
To my mind, the current trend away from powerful machines, with keyboards, good quality mono screens and sensible build/design and towards chrome/changable facias/built-in MP3 player type nonsense is symptomatic of the dumbness of corporate-types and affluent consumers.
Just my brief half-pence worth.
Rob.
And you forgot the most obvious of Brits to come up with a great idea: Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, and Franklin....
www.eFax.com are spammers
That's so obvious! The situation with PDA computers today is same as it was 10-15 years ago with Personal Computers. I mean, you know.. microsoft domination thing and all that..
Quoted from the Daily Telegraph, 14 Oct 2000....
"Hoover's Triple Vortex vacuum cleaner was banned from sale yesterday after the company was found guilty of infringing James Dyson's patented vacuum cleaner technology.
"A High Court judge ordered Hoover to pay an advance of £200,000 towards Dyson's costs. Mr Dyson, inventor of the dual cyclone system, is awaiting judgment on multi-million pound damages he is seeking after Hoover copied his designs. Peter Prescott QC, for Dyson, had told the judge that Hoover had been given at least a 12-month advantage in developing its bagless cleaners because it infringed a patent and it should not be allowed to benefit from it.
"He said Hoover had spent £5 million promoting the name Vortex, and was now trying to launch a machine which did not infringe the patent but was cashing in on the reputation of the infringing Triple Vortex. Hoover is recalling the Triple Vortex from dealers. The machines will have a non-infringing single cyclone operation and filter installed. Deputy High Court Judge Michael Fysh QC granted Hoover permission to take the case to the Court of Appeal."
In other words, Dyson made it, but only bcos the case was tried in Britain. Hoover is an American company, and they thought they could get away with it.
Grab.
Oh, go on then, i'll pick an even smaller nit :-)
Advanced RISC Machines, the company, was spun off from the then Olivetti-owned Acorn computers in 1990. Herman Hauser (we are SO not worthy!) felt that the Acorn RISC Machine chip, which went into production for the Archie in 1985, wouldn't get much take-up by other companies so long as it was owned by a single computer manufacturer.
So ARM the company did indeed always stand for Advanced RISC Machines, and ARM the chip was, indeed, born as the Acorn RISC Machine, changing its name at the time of the spin-off.
TomV
I don't see why PDAs shouldn't do well on the consumer market soon...
I'm really considering getting a PDA, but my main concerns are: Can't be too expensive. It mustn't be too much of a loss if I loose it throw it off a cliff or something like that. Shit happens, you know. Also, it must be flexible and hackable.
Employee of Inrupt, Project Release Manager and Community Manager for Solid
I'm not buying a PDA until it can act as a PIM, Instant Messenger, email client for all of my accounts, act as a phone with my choice of service provider, Allow me to hack da hell out of it (linux of course!) and allow for various plugins like GPS, camera and removable media.
Ops.
AND check my /.
LFS. Have you built your system today?
So what country am I going to? That phone rocks!
LFS. Have you built your system today?
So... if they're dumping the product, anyone know where we can get them for Dreamcast-like prices? Wholesale? Better than wholesale?
--
Libertarianism is rich wolves and poor sheep playing gambler's ruin for dinner.
This is, of course, complete rubbish. Psion handhelds have shipped with Psiwin and a link cable for many years now, at no extra cost.
Yeah, well I don't suppose you owned a Psion Siena that, as this 1998 PC Magazine (UK) review clearly states, shipped without any kind of connectivity.
OK, so by 1998 Psion did bundle very basic PC connectivity with some of its models (also reviewed were the Psion 3C and the Psion 5) but this wasn't always the case - the Psiwin software and link cable started life as an optional extra.
But isn't it disgraceful enough that, only three years ago, Psion were happy to sell a £200/$300 (the prices in the review are exclusive of taxes) handheld device without PC connectivity in the box? And that cost of PC connectivity was for this device was a bargain-basement £80/$120?
Is this what you meant by "no extra cost"?
Meanwhile, a PalmPilot Professional cost £220/£330 and the (at that time) new Palm III cost £300/$450. Arguably finer products with unparalled connectivity at no extra cost.Next time, check your facts before you start commenting on the veracity of those provided by others.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Great, and with a color screen, it will still be able to have the familar BSOD.
"What are we going to do tonight, Bill?"
www.lucernesys.comHorizon: Calendar-based personal finance
There are several reasons. I'll list a few big ones. Some are interrelated. I base most of this information on my experiences with implementing hand held devices and applications within a large company.
GreyPoopon
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GreyPoopon
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Why is it I can write insightful comments but can't come up with a clever signature?
I have owned a Psion Series 4, Psion Revo and I currently own a Psion 5mx.
They are fantastic machines, albeit with limitations, but they fill a market niche that nobody has a sensible entrant in: Handheld devices with usable keyboards!
I hate palmtops that you need to write on (graffiti, normal handwriting, whatever). I have bad handwriting, I'm very slow at it. I hate having to write things by hand. Notes, diagrams, pictures, sure. Entering in a name and address, the details for a meeting, etc, I want to use a keyboard - it's quicker and more accurate.
Plus the psions were very capable machines - ok, the version of Doom was limited; the speccy emulator rocks, nethack is fantastic (and you have a keyboard so its playable) and there is a lot of other stuff out there.
I wont go into why Psion didn't get market domination - other people are making that point very well. I am just disappointed that they didn't get a sufficiently large market share to justify additional R&D and continue to bring out innovative and cutting edge technology that makes me feel good as a gadget freak and also prove useful in my daily life.
~Cederic
Simple answers - lack of investment, and lack of overseas emphasis. America's typically had plenty of ppl willing to invest in non-blue-chip, whereas it's very difficult to get startup or continuity investment in Britain, simply bcos the banks and venture capitalists historically didn't want to invest locally. Paul Dyson, for instance, had to go to Japan to get funding. And the government hasn't helped - they're quite happy to give multi-hundred-million-pound bribes to large overseas companies to get inward investment, but they've never thought that the money would be better used to kickstart _British_ businesses.
Add to that the fact that Psion's not been heavily promoted outside Europe, and it all falls apart. As with VHS and Betamax, the product which won was the one with the better marketing, not the one with the technical superiority.
Grab.
For a long time, Psion had the handheld market sewn-up. Sure, it had competitors like Casio and Atari (remember the Portfolio anyone?) but no one who really had a well-rounded, well-supported product with either a software- or user-base to match.
But the one area the Psion was weak in was connectivity. Out of the box, you could not connect a Psion to a PC or a Mac, which meant all those names, numbers and address had to be entered manually. Eventually, the company released connectivity kits that allowed users to exchange data between their devices and their PCs. But at £50/$80 or so, these weren't exactly great value for money.
Then US Robotics came along with the Pilot, which, after various model revisions and name changes, became the Palm. Now, fuctionwise, this new handheld didn't do anything that any other handheld could do - to-do list, calendar, calculator, contacts, notes. But what it did do was connect to and exchange data with PCs very easily. At the touch of a button no less, out of the box
Meanwhile, Psion happily trundled on ignoring the fact that the market had changed and that users now expected PC connectivity at no extra cost. Rather than bundling the necessary cable and software (cost to them perhaps £10/$15), they carried on with the same business model.
Now when you have a monopoly (or near monopoly) you can ignore the market like this and just do what you want. When you don't, you have to watch the rest of the herd and, sometimes, follow them.
Psion didn't, sales dropped, the Symbian alliance lifeboat sank, and the rest is history.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
He was so embarassed by the results that after the 3a owner showed him what he had typed, he wouldn't admit how he had done and refused to reveal his results.
Styluses are sexy - tiny keyboards aren't. The 3a could be folded up and put in your pocket despite the keyboard, and the Psion display form-factor facilitated really good spreadsheet work (which it came with). For businessmen and women on the go, it was an excellent tool for keeping track of your expenses, etc. As a consultant at the time, I actually used mine to generate invoices (it could be plugged directly into any HP printer).
As a pre-cursor to Palm, and containing all of this cool technology, why didn't it rule the PDA world? Same old story:
- Poor marketing in it's biggest potential market - the U.S. and Canada
- No manufacturing facilities in N.A. kept the price too high
- Poor distribution channels in N.A.
Lesson learned: If you have cool technology that you want to be successful, you have to build it in N.A., market it in N.A., and sell it in N.A.Q.E.D.
I am not interested in articles about life extension advancements.
This is a real shame for the handheld market. Psion were leaders in this industry (in the UK at least, where for ages they basically owned the market, without the need for StrongARM [ahem] tactics).
Psion machines exude quality at all levels, the clam-shell cases are masterpieces of engineering, the satisfying slide as they open really does have to be felt to be believed, and EPOC is without a doubt a killer OS. (It's my #2 favorite, closely followed by whatever the Spectrum ran was called). There is no better way to idle the time away while sat on a train or bus than a quick game of Cascade on my Revo (that's one of the original ones, not the RevoPlus) or rattling off a few thoughts in the jotter or word processor.
That leads nicely to the keyboard, I never cease to be impressed at how easy it is to type on such a small keyboard, and sitting in a coffee house with a huge cappucino that dwarfs the computer you're furtively typing away at results in the most amazing puzzled looks from other caffeine consumers.
I'm just very, very glad that EPOC will continue in the form of the Symbian partnership, and that Psion will no doubt emerge as leaders in whatever is the next big growth area. If they could make the jump from the producer of some of the greatest computer games of the early 80's to producer of the best handhelds, I am sure they will be one of the best at whatever they next turn their collective hands to.
250 jobs lost is always a tragedy, I just hope that the people concerned find that with the skills they have, they are able to find alternative employment very soon.
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Listening for the sound of the coming rain...
Now, I count on my Revo for the next 3 years (ouch, synchornization software might become hard to find! Damnit!), but after that? I hope there will be *good* alternatives then. I mean with build in spreadsheet (I use that all the time, and Palms do not have it *by default*), and preferably with a keyboard. I tried Palms, even tough grafitti is fun, it cannot be used to write a 3 page email. (Yes, I do that, and yes I check email with my Psion by using my cellphone)
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
Television - John Logie Baird (Scottish)
Computers - Babbage, Turing (tho' Pascal, Aiken, Eckert & Mauchly et al all could be considered 'inventors of the computer')
Facsimilie, or Fax - Alexander Bain (Scottish)
Holography - Dennis Gabon (English)
Penicilin - Alexander Fleming (English)
Railways - George Stephenson (English)
Jet Engines - Frank Whittle (English)
Hovercraft - Christopher Cockerell (english)
Tanks - E.D. Swinton (English)
And we are leaders in.. err.. none of the above. Us Brits are ideas people, but we're a bit crap at actually carrying things through to the end.
http://twitter.com/onion2k
It's unfortunate, but thats reality.
Uninnovate - Only the finest in engineering.
This seems to be the way that British hardware companies develop. There is a close parallel between Psion moving from hardware (the 5mx, Revo, etc) to intellectual property (via Symbian), and the fate of Acorn.
To those of you that haven't been in a British school in the last 15 years - Acorn used to be the main supplier of computers to educational establishments, with the BBCs in the early 80s, and the Archimedes in the late 80s, early 90s. Being British, the Archimedes was an incredible ground-breaking mass-market system which absolutely no-one bought: it was the system the original ARM chip was designed for (indeed, ARM used to mean 'Acorn RISC Machines'). The Archimedes, which came out in 1987, had a 32-bit, graphical, multi-tasking operating system with the best version of Basic I've used used.
Luckily, they were better at marketing the ARM chip than they were in marketing the actual computer - ARM was spun off at a seperate company, and is now worth much much more than Acorn ever was. Much of the money ARM makes comes from licensing it's designs to other companies.
Similarly, Psion designed achingly wonderful handheld machines (I bought a Psion 5 when it came out. Recently, it ran for 44 hours on a pair of ordinary AA batteries). Incredible battery life, wonderful keyboard, very well designed OS (Epoc), integrated programming language. Now it looks like Psion the hardware company will fade away, and Symbian the software company will grow.
-- Help Digitise the Public Domain at DP.
The C++ compiler you use for developing EPOC applications is GNU C. Is that free enough? You can download the SDK from here: http://www.symbiandevnet.com/
The only drawback is that it assumes that you are developing on a M$ platform.
If only Symbian could make the EPOC OS open source. Then it would really take off! The EPOC OS is really good and beats PalmOS easily. But I'm afraid that Symbian would rather just stop developing the OS than making it Free. Sigh.
)9TSS