Innovation
Rupert Goodwins' Diary
Thursday 01/03/2001Smartphones Not To Save World: Official!Poor old Potter Scientific Investments.
Thursday
01/03/2001 Smartphones Not To Save World: Official! Poor old Potter Scientific Investments. Psion decided it couldn't afford to develop its smartphone after Motorola pulled out of the joint project, and also looked nervously at sales of its PDAs -- which remain nice devices, but long in the tooth and suffering from the energetic Palm market. And what with the slowdown in technology consumerism, Symbian's not going to be generating money any time soon. So it told investors, who muttered into their spreadsheets and wiped a healthy chunk off the share price. It's hard to know what Psion should do next. Its diversification into parcel tracking services is mildly entertaining and seems to work, but does it tingle the fingers? Palm doesn't seem to have opted for Symbian for the next generation of its OS -- we'll find that out for sure next week -- so the way ahead seems murky indeed. But it's not the first time Psion's been down in the dumps, and it's been around long enough to know what it's like to ride out recessions, changing markets and unfashionability. Don't write them off yet.
01/03/2001 Smartphones Not To Save World: Official! Poor old Potter Scientific Investments. Psion decided it couldn't afford to develop its smartphone after Motorola pulled out of the joint project, and also looked nervously at sales of its PDAs -- which remain nice devices, but long in the tooth and suffering from the energetic Palm market. And what with the slowdown in technology consumerism, Symbian's not going to be generating money any time soon. So it told investors, who muttered into their spreadsheets and wiped a healthy chunk off the share price. It's hard to know what Psion should do next. Its diversification into parcel tracking services is mildly entertaining and seems to work, but does it tingle the fingers? Palm doesn't seem to have opted for Symbian for the next generation of its OS -- we'll find that out for sure next week -- so the way ahead seems murky indeed. But it's not the first time Psion's been down in the dumps, and it's been around long enough to know what it's like to ride out recessions, changing markets and unfashionability. Don't write them off yet.