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Psion "demonstrates commitment" by saying nothing, really.

Psion failed to amaze and astound at CeBIT yesterday when it finally announced a new boss for its associated Symbian software company - replacing Colly Myers, who founded Symbian. Most of what Psion said, however, was waffle.

The only substantial good news to emerge was that the excellent David Levin moves from CEO of Psion to become CEO of Symbian - as from April 8th. Chairman David Potter also confirmed long-held speculation that Samsung would join the Symbian club.

After that, Psion was playing things close to the corporate chest, giving away nothing.

Phrases like: "Psion Teklogix has today demonstrated its commitment to the enterprise market by announcing its new internal organisation dedicated to the fast-growing mobile computing marketplace" emerged from the restructuring.

What does this mean? It means: "The new Mobile Computing unit, consisting of dedicated employees in Europe, Asia and North America, conducted a series of global summits with Psion Teklogix' key technology and channel partners in January 2002 to ensure that the company continues to meet the needs of the mobile enterprise computing market."

Yes, but apart from internal focus groups, what is Psion actually doing?

"In addition, Psion Teklogix' Partner Program has been enhanced with additional funding for development and commercialisation of applications and solutions to address core mobile computing market segments adding greatly to its market offerings," the company failed to reveal.

How are sales going? "Since the November 2001 launch of the netpad, a handheld device that bridges the gap between rugged industrial computers and professional consumer devices," - yes, that's the beast - how is it selling? "Psion Teklogix has continued to meet the needs of its customers working in demanding environments by substantially investing in the mobile computing market."

The damage limitation exercise followed an operating loss of £17 million, and the purchase of Teklogix last year for a sum which has proved to be excessive in current market conditions, with a total write-off of over £150 million associated with the closure of Psion's core PDA business last year, and goodwill relating to Teklogix this year.

The Symbian software venture, which was based on the old Psion EPOC "(Eat Plenty Of Carrots") operating system ported to mobile phones - in partnership with Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia and others - still looks the most successful offering in the new smart phone market. But the departure of founder Colly Myers early in the year left observers baffled, and even now he has finally been replaced, Psion seems unable to offer a coherent explanation of either his departure, or the delay in announcing his replacement.

Asked by Cantos whether he could shed light on the departure of Myers, David Potter, founder of Psion, produced this: "No. I think that it's long been known in the market and among investors and, indeed, in the industry that Colly Myers, who has been the chief executive of Symbian for nearly four years - since the joint venture was formed - and prior to that had been involved and been a critical component in the development of Psion over nearly 20 years played a major role."

Anybody who understands that, feel free to explain ...

Bloomberg noted merely that the "losses have widened."