Psion Clones Coming

Pegasus-based PDAs are also on the horizon.

Jim Nagel

Psion, the U.K.-based computer company that holds a third of the world market for palmtop devices, is currently licensing its ROM-based OS and applications to other manufacturers. Psion hopes that the move will grow the market and foster the development of new smart phones, mobile Web browsers, and intelligent terminals that will capitalize on the convergence of computer and telecommunications technologies.

The first licensees and products based on Psion's EPOC platform will be announced next year. Company officials say that there will be no reference design, like the one discussed for the Web PC, because the target systems can differ so widely (e.g., a feature phone versus a complete PDA).

Psion's decision to license its OS may be partially motivated by the slew of new PDAs expected to be released later this year. These new systems will be built around Pegasus, a new Windows-compatible OS for PDAs from Microsoft. But Stephen Randall, Psion's vice president of licensing, says Pegasus-based products are not a threat because "through our licensing, the Psion platform will move into many highly customized solutions." He adds that the desktop companion products that Pegasus is intended for are not the target market of Psion licensees.

The first new Psion model to be made available to palmtop manufacturers will succeed the popular Psion 3a series. It will be constructed around the highly integrated ARM7100 processor (fabricated by Cirrus Logic [Fremont, CA]), which is basically a complete PDA on a chip. Other systems will also deploy the powerful StrongARM chip, which has the ability to bring speech recognition to the next generation of Psion computers.

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Psion's A -Comin'

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Psion's popular 3a model.