Windows Phone Thoughts: Psion Back in the PDA Business?

Heads up all you Psion fans, the UK firm could be back in the PDA business again! Now that Psion has sold it’s share in Symbian to Nokia, they may be getting back to the business of cranking out PDAs again. 8) "Symbian is the property of Nokia - and (to a lesser extent) three other phone makers, Panasonic, Siemens, and Sony Ericsson - and Psion thinks there's more to life than phones."

Only thing is, they may well be Linux PDAs: "… we see it as going way beyond Microsoft, being much wider than that. We see Linux as being very interesting, not only in terms of technology, but also in market dynamics". :?

"The key to Psion's involvement in Windows CE, is simply that it's a much more compact, responsive, and more mobile environment than Windows XP. And Linux, they think, is even more so. The irony, of course, is that when Motorola pulled out of Symbian late last year one of the reasons it gave was its desire to launch a Linux phone. But Psion won't - actually, can't - compete with Symbian in phones. Instead, it sees the value of Linux as giving the world a smaller, more reliable and more portable personal computer".

This Inquirer article goes into a bit more details about the issues involved: "The question is - having once been the leading supplier of consumer orientated handhelds in Europe - can Psion rebuild its distribution channel again? Potter appears to have forgotten that the reason given for cancelling its consumer range three years ago (the company still sells industrial handhelds through Teklogix) was that there was no demand for a Bluetooth enabled successor to the Psion 5."

"So will dispensing with the need to pay royalties to Symbian save enough money to make Psion's new generation of robust mobile devices competitive? Potter claims his company will launch a sub-notebook by Q3 2004 and a handheld with a miniature keyboard shortly afterwards."

So, what are they cooking up for us? Sounds intriguing! I’m very fond of Psion – I went through a Psion 3, Sienna, Revo and Psion Revo Plus and was considering a 5MX, before ending up with a Pocket PC. I look forward to seeing what they come up with. As the Inq says "One thing is true – Psion still has a very loyal set of users."

Just imagine what that Psion design flair teamed up with Pocket PC 2004 could produce! :sunny: It’s a thought anyway......