Nick wrote:
> http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=14300

This sale cannot possibly be a "surprise". PSION stopped producing Symbian
based units some time ago, and its recent move to load WinCE instead of
EPOC-32 on its netbooks and netpad was a good indication that PSION was moving
from EPOC32. (The netpad, as I recall, was the only device with Symbian OS
(eg: something beyond ER5).


The interesting tidbit is the rumours that Nokia had considered buying PSION.

When you compare the heydays of PSION in the Series 3 timeframe, followed by a
big chunk of PSION spun off as Symbian, there really wasn't much left of PSION
after the Series 5 was released. As I recall, even the industrial designer who
had done the series 3 had gone out on his own and designed the 5 under
contract for PSION.

Makes me wonder if Potter made the decision to gradually cannabalise PSION
back in the 1996 timeframe. Write a new OS with the sole goal of selling it
(along with your smartest software employees) to the mobile phone companies as
soon as it is ready with a demo hardware (Series 5). Once that is done, you
slowly get rid of the rest. Why else would PSION have dismantled its north
american PDA distribution/marketing shortly after the 5 was released ?

PSION originally had far superior products to those of Teklogix. Makes one
wonder why it would have cannabalised its own to buy Teklogix. Seems like a
way to transfer PSION's remaining industrial products to Teklogix, along with
some of its remaining intellectual property. If nobody will buy your
remaining industrial business, then you can buy someone and give them your
business, this way, you don't need to write off your industrial business.

What I find interesting is that Teklogix has retained its identity instead of
just becoming PSION. It could be because PSION doesn't intend to maintain its
investment in Teklogix forever, and it is always easier to spin off a
subsidiary when it has its own name.

The next milestone will be when PSION either shuts down or sells its
"obligatory" support operations once the 5 year of support promise lapses.

At that point, the question becomes: will the PSION name continue to exist, or
will Teklogix drop the "PSIOn" from it name, returning to its former self ?

I don't think PSION shareholders have much to complain about.

however, other shareholders of Symbian would have the right to be concerned
about Symbian falling under control of a single competitor. It is interesting
that when Motorola wanted out, PSION bought a big chunk of Motorola's shares.
Probably to prevent the appearance of Motorola selling to Nokia. (PSION would
have known by that time that the shares it bought from Motorola would be sold
"soon" to Nokia).


So, who is left as shareholders of Symbian ?