[TawnerX]

I think the downfall of Psion are several things:

1. They fail to harnesh the power of internet to congeal the community.
They also fail to use internet to do direct sale and the US distributor is fubar from the beginning. They were selling the handheld like it was the 80's. Granted the internet was very new at that time, and they are not exactly in the center of the internet universe. But they deserve to die for being idiots in marketing and fail to notice growing trend. Who on earth tries to sell PDA by doing a wall st. full page ad stunt. Totally dubious.

2. They still thinks Psion/MX as traditional old skool computer. They fail to pick up fancy fun things that will drive any geek crazy beyond just owning a cute and slighly cool mini computer.: mp3, web browser, ebooks, games and toys. So what if that too visionary for the early 90s.

3. the hardware is interesting, but again the design guide is old skool computing. No audio, no color. MP3 application alone could have bring them massive sale, just like how mp3 saves Palm-sized.

4. and finally of course, they didn't pay attention to the pesky little Palm and actually fight war of attrition against Microsoft in mini keyboarded handheld.

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I think if there is anything that Psion can do now is doing a PDA with interesting features. They are an expert at hardware integration like industrial handheld.

I could imagine they would make a funky sport/executive PDA with GPS integrated, folding keyboard, various wireless, etc. And of course most important feature "Elegant" design in the tradition of proper British design school. It wont be like those back alley taiwanese discount plastic chasis, or design by comitte ala Dell.

[TawnerX]

I think the downfall of Psion are several things:

1. They fail to harnesh the power of internet to congeal the community.
They also fail to use internet to do direct sale and the US distributor is fubar from the beginning. They were selling the handheld like it was the 80's. Granted the internet was very new at that time, and they are not exactly in the center of the internet universe. But they deserve to die for being idiots in marketing and fail to notice growing trend. Who on earth tries to sell PDA by doing a wall st. full page ad stunt. Totally dubious.

2. They still thinks Psion/MX as traditional old skool computer. They fail to pick up fancy fun things that will drive any geek crazy beyond just owning a cute and slighly cool mini computer.: mp3, web browser, ebooks, games and toys. So what if that too visionary for the early 90s.

3. the hardware is interesting, but again the design guide is old skool computing. No audio, no color. MP3 application alone could have bring them massive sale, just like how mp3 saves Palm-sized.

4. and finally of course, they didn't pay attention to the pesky little Palm and actually fight war of attrition against Microsoft in mini keyboarded handheld.

-----------------
I think if there is anything that Psion can do now is doing a PDA with interesting features. They are an expert at hardware integration like industrial handheld.

I could imagine they would make a funky sport/executive PDA with GPS integrated, folding keyboard, various wireless, etc. And of course most important feature "Elegant" design in the tradition of proper British design school. It wont be like those back alley taiwanese discount plastic chasis, or design by comitte ala Dell.

[bjornkeizers]

Psion.. Hmm, that's certainly a blast from the past.

I own two PSION devices: A 512 kb Siena and a Psion Revo Plus [16 mb] The hardware and the OS aren't bad; in fact, they have some things that are still not present in Windows CE.. like a decent Word and Excel clone.. I can do graphs on my Revo!

The problem is, PSIONs were way too expensive. Just before they stopped making them for and selling them to consumers, they were as expensive as Pocket PC's, and twice as expensive as Palms! And they only had one or two models out at any time.. the Revo and MX5

You can't compete against all those palms and pocket pc's with only two devices which are too expensive.. so they rightly deserved to go out of business.

[Timothy Rapson]

I had a Diamond Mako. It was the best money I have ever spent on any computer product ever, nothing is even close.

CE/PPC/Wizard/Palm none of the mobile OSs come close.

What a sad day. The day companies and consumers finaly settled for what lame mobile OSs we have now over the best ever.

Linux and Symbian might restore some sense to the OS world, but so far Epoc is still the OS above all OSs.

[Thinkingmandavid]

for those of you who think you know what you are talking about but dont, and for those of you who do, here is the link that tells about that launch of that Netbook and someone who actually works for Teklogix....http://pdastreet.com/forums/showthre...threadid=20368
This will let you know what has been going on and the reason for the switch of the OS on this model not all models. There is a user in this thread by the name of harveyr, who works for teklogix...Have fun reading

[Thinkingmandavid]

http://www.pdastreet.com/forums/show...threadid=20368

[griph]

Originally Posted by bjornkeizers

Psion.. Hmm, that's certainly a blast from the past.

The problem is, PSIONs were way too expensive. Just before they stopped making them for and selling them to consumers, they were as expensive as Pocket PC's, and twice as expensive as Palms! And they only had one or two models out at any time.. the Revo and MX5
.

I dont believe for their time that Psions were particularly expensive - even in the UK where we traditionally pay pounds for dollars (eg get ripped off). Granted that they were around the price of a Pocket PC but when they launched - there was *nothing* like it on the market. I remember very well the inner turmoil between resisting buying and Gimme gimme gimme - I gotta have it! Everytime the devil got the best of me and the credit card.

One of Psion's problems was reliance on Proprietary hardware - they used their own expansion cards that were horribly expensive - 4mB Flash - £400! The Psion 5 started the process of using standard CF memory, but by then others were getting in on the market.

It is only recently that we have seen multiple offerings from PPC providers. When I bought my first iPaq there was only one model!

The software for the Psions was actually pretty good. The Word processor in my Psion 3A was still better than in my iPaq! It also had a built in programmer, good built in apps and there was loads of shareware to download including games - albeit now rather rudimentary.

Colour screens were only available in the Psion's Twilight years - they just could not compete with the clout of big companies backed by MS, but in their day they were the front runners - the inventors of the Handheld Organiser - we should remember them for what they started - would Pocket PC's be here if Mr Potter hadn't had that dream realised?

[kamodt]

This isn't the first time Psion considered WCE. They were considering using the Jupiter software for the first netBook but politically couldn't pull it off. They were in the throes of building Symbian and didn't want people to think that there was anything wrong with Psion OS.

It would have been a major coup then and it's pretty cool now that they've realized they need the development resources that WCE brings them.

Of course, the real coup would have been if we'd been able to convince Steve Jobs to keep their eMate and Messenger products alive with WCE. That would have been cool!

Keith Amodt

[Jonathon Watkins]

Originally Posted by Brad Adrian

To me, the best part of my Psion5 wasn't the hardware or the OS, but the built-in apps. They had (IMO) the best backup program and wonderfully easy to use database app.

Don't forget the Epic sound alarm controlls you had over appointments etc. All built in. :? My Sienna and Revo served me well. I miss them :cry: (a bit :wink