mobile computers company psion plc. for other uses see psion disambiguation . this article has multiple issues . please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . learn how and when to remove these template messages this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . july 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message the neutrality of this article is disputed . relevant discussion may be found on the talk page . please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met . july 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message this article contains wording that promotes the subject in a subjective manner without imparting real information . please remove or replace such wording and instead of making proclamations about a subject s importance use facts and attribution to demonstrate that importance . july 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message this article relies largely or entirely upon a single source . relevant discussion may be found on the talk page . please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources . july 2012 this article contains content that is written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . july 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message learn how and when to remove this template message psion industry computers founded 1980 headquarters london england uk key people john hawkins chairman john conoley ceo products workabout pro 3 neo ik n omnii xt10 ep10 8500 series vehicle mount devices revenue 170 million 2009 number of employees 900 2010 website 1 psion was a designer and manufacturer of mobile handheld computers for commercial and industrial applications . the company was 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 was a public company listed on the london stock exchange lse pon and was once a constituent of the ftse 100 index . psion s operational business was formed in september 2000 from a merger of psion and canadian based teklogix inc. and was 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 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 assistants . 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 . it was announced on 15 june 2012 that motorola solutions had agreed to buy the company for 200 million . 1 contents 1 history 1.1 early development 1.2 the psion organiser 1.3 software 1.4 2010 onward 2 psion and the term netbook 3 psion and linux 4 pdas 5 laptops 6 references 7 external links history edit early development edit 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 computers released under the sinclair psion brand . psion s games for the zx spectrum included chess chequered flag flight simulation and the horace series . 2 early software releases for the zx spectrum included titles such as vu calc vu file and vu 3d along with dozens of other titles . 3 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 . 2 the psion organiser edit psion organiser ii main article psion organiser 1984 also marked psion s first foray into hardware ; the psion organiser an early handheld computer in appearance resembling a pocket calculator with an alphanumeric keyboard . in 1986 the vastly improved psion organiser ii was released and was assembled by speedboard assembly services . 4 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 . 2 it is often rumoured that epoc stands for electronic piece of cheese however colly myers who was symbian s ceo from founding until 2002 5 said in an interview that it stood for epoch and nothing more . this development effort produced the clamshell qwerty based psion series 3 palmtops 1993 98 which sold in the hundreds of thousands and the psion mc series laptops which sold poorly compared to the dos based laptops of the era . a second effort dubbed project protea produced the psion series 5 for sale in 1997 a completely new product from the 32 bit hardware upwards through the os ui and applications . 2 it is still remembered for its high quality keyboard which despite its size allowed for touch typing . however the new feel of the product and the removal of certain familiar quirks alienated loyal series 3 users who tended to stick with their pdas rather than upgrade . in 1999 psion released the psion series 7 which was much like a larger version of the series 5 followed by the very similar psion netbook . psion was being challenged by the arrival of cheaper pdas such as the palm pilot and pocketpcs running microsoft s windows ce . all of psion s earlier devices had monochrome screens but in 2003 it released a color screen netbook pro running windows ce . net 4.2 instead of epoc . software edit 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 . 2 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 update 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 6 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 . 2 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 . 7 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 . 2 2010 onward edit psion intends to tailor and customize modular variants of its products through its online community ingenuity working . launched in march 2010 ingenuity working had more than 35 000 visitors per month within its first six months . 8 in january 2011 the company refreshed its corporate identity and developed a new logo which 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 . 9 at the same time it removed teklogix from its operating company name to create a clear unifying global identity . 9 psion and the term netbook edit psion registered the trademark netbook in various territories including european union 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 10 for the psion netbook product discontinued in november 2003 11 and from october 2003 the netbook pro later also discontinued . 12 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 . 13 in response to the growing use of the term on 23 december 2008 psion teklogix sent cease and desist letters 14 to various parties including enthusiast website s demanding they no longer use the term netbook . 15 16 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 . 17 18 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 . 19 similar marks were 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 edit psion plc had a lengthy but distant interest in linux as an operating system