If there is one company that desperately needs some good PR it is Psion, the British handheld PC maker. In February it suffered the double whammy of poor financial results and the cancellation of a key new product. And March didn't bring much cheer with the news that sales of PDAs (personal digital assistants) are slowing down in the world's largest market - the USA.
While Psion bosses dream of a brighter future, its design staff have been busy conceptualising the products that can turn these into reality.
At the Mobile Expo conference in Cannes recently Psion gave industry executives a preview of what to expect.
The two new Psion models are billed by the company as prototypes, rather than real- world models. They have been designed to illustrate what Psion products will look like in the third generation mobile phone era scheduled to begin in 2002-03.
According to Psion, the one that is more likely to end up as a real-world product is the Ace multi-screen communicator.
Targeted at executives on the move, and about the half the size of a PDA, the Ace flips open to reveal as many as three LCD screens.
The user could make a video conferencing call on one screen while keeping the agenda and a database displayed on the other. Alternatively the screens could be used for a four-way video conference call.
Perhaps its most useful application will be in enabling the next generation Psion user to watch three football matches simultaneously. Other features include Bluetooth compatibility which keeps the unit wirelessly connected to the earpiece and a slot for a Secure Digital (SD) card for storing image and video files.
Psion's second prototype, the Halo, offers the full range of functionality associated with 3G technology; namely a camera, video facilities, a web browser and PDA functions. But due to its size it has no screen; instead an integrated projector beams the information on to any available surface.
Intriguingly, Psion claims that most of us will use it to view images on the palm of our hands. The device is also so small that it can be worn round the neck. Voice phone calls can be made via a Blue tooth-enabled throat microphone.
As with all the 3G prototypes Online has seen (and we've seen a few) the products certainly look innovative. And as with most other 3G prototypes ,we wonder just how long the device's batteries will last before those high-tech screens go blank.
Whether these snapshots of tomorrow's technology translate into actual products that help Psion grab a significant chunk of a crowded market (that includes not only Palm, Handspring and Microsoft, but also Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola and Sony) remains to be seen.
