Psion's Potter proud of rump

THE HEAD of Psion, Sir David Potter, claims Britain needs nation institutes to drive forward technological innovation and act as 'middlemen'. This is his theory as to why the UK lost the lead in handheld computers.

Potter was seeking to explain to the FT how the UK could have done so badly when Psion introduced the first handheld - the Organiser - in 1986 while Sir Alan Sugar's Amstrad introduced the first commercial PDA back in 1991.

Describing why he originally chose to move out of games into handhelds, Potter suggested, "I would have probably [needed] pink hair and a pony tail." Instead Psion introduced one of the INQ's favourite PDAs - the Revo.

So why did Psion suddenly pull out of consumer handhelds back in 2001? Why didn't it merely do a MG Rover and sell out lock, stock and barrel to a Chinese manufacturer?

The INQ would argue that what Psion needed to have done was to listen to marketing. Why didn't the Revo have an industry standard memory slot when Psion Dacom employees were experts in PCMCIA? Why didn't it launch a Symbian version of its Netbook Pro when 2,900 people signed a petition for it?

Nonetheless, despite the fact that Potter has sold off the family silver - its Symbian stake and Psion Software, for example - he still appears proud of the rump that is Psion. Including high-end PDA manufacturer, Psion Teklogix, of course.

That the petition again. µ