Psion (company)

Psion PLC was a British designer and manufacturer of mobile handheld computers, headquartered in London with major operations in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It was formed in 1980 as a software house with a close relationship with Sinclair Research, writing games and office programs for the ZX81, ZX Spectrum and Sinclair QL. The name began as an acronym for Potter Scientific Instruments, after its founder David Potter, with ON added because the acronym PSI was already in use. In 1984 it entered hardware with the Psion Organiser, a pocket-calculator-sized handheld computer, followed in 1986 by the much improved Organiser II, which included the Open Programming Language for database programming. From 1987 it developed the SIBO family of devices and the multitasking EPOC operating system for its Series 3 palmtops, MC laptops and industrial handhelds. Its operational business was formed in September 2000 by a merger with the Canadian company Teklogix and turned to rugged mobile computing for commercial and industrial use. Psion withdrew from the consumer device market in 2001, was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, and in June 2012 agreed to be acquired by Motorola Solutions for 200 million dollars.