Word: psion
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...painfully long time, people have been asking David Potter, chairman of British computer maker Psion, "When are you going to die?" It's nothing personal, only that Potter's company--the maker of sleek hand-held computers, with annual sales of just $235 million--is sitting astride a market now being targeted by Bill Gates and giant Microsoft Corp., plus a dozen of the world's leading computer-hardware manufacturers. The battle became so intense earlier this year that Potter was forced to issue a warning about reduced profits, and Psion's stock price took a beating...
...joint venture, called Symbian, will license Psion's software as the underlying brains behind a new generation of smart devices, ranging from mobile phones that receive e-mail, surf the Internet and even pay for transactions, to laptop computers that can go online automatically without anyone's having to open the carrying case. Yet the battle between Symbian and the Microsoft camp is not just about who will make next year's cool gadgets. It promises to determine who will control the next era of personal communications...
...Unlike Psion, which produced the first digital organizer in the 1980s, Microsoft's entry into the world of palmtop computing began only three years ago, when the company rolled out Windows CE, a relative of the company's ubiquitous operating system now found on more than 90% of personal computers. Microsoft then signed up 10 manufacturers, including Hewlett-Packard, Sharp and Philips, to make hand-held computers to its specifications. Following the huge success of the Palm Pilot, the tiny organizer that uses a plastic pen instead of a keyboard, Microsoft enlisted another eight manufacturers to make a competing version...
That led Potter to approach Nokia, Ericsson and later Motorola--which has agreed in principle to join Symbian--with an offer to use Psion's operating system EPOC as the basis for smart phones. He offered a remarkable deal, taking only 31% of Symbian and selling the remainder to the three phone giants for $50 million. "Companies like Nokia and Ericsson are concerned about ending up like the manufacturers of personal computers, becoming box shifters for Microsoft," says Martin Butler, a British computer consultant. "Potter could become the Bill Gates of the portable-device marketplace. It's there waiting...
When the giants agreed to an alliance, Psion became the Cinderella of the mobile-phone world. Analysts figured that if it won 15% of the mobile-phone market projected for 2003, Psion's share of Symbian alone could be worth $430 million a year. The deal also meant that Psion's computers might find more customers. Psion's depressed shares soared as a result, from $3.36 to $12 on the London Stock Exchange. "For a while it looked like Psion was finished, but by getting together with the dominant players in the telecom industry and partnering with them, they have...