Psion veteran Charles Davies leaves Nokia for TomTom
By Donald Melanson 
posted June 28th 2010 2:29AM
posted June 28th 2010 2:29AM
Charles Davies might not be as immediately recognizable as some other industry veterans, but anyone that's been following this business since the early days of PDAs will no doubt be familiar with his work. Davies was Psion's very first employee way back in 1981, and stuck with the company all the way up until 2003 when he left to join Symbian, before moving on to Nokia with the rest of the Symbian staff a few years later. During that time, Davies helped Psion pioneer the use of flash memory and custom silicon in handhelds, served as Symbian's CTO, and helped Nokia head up the strategy and architecture team for its R&D division. What's more, as The Register notes, Davies move to TomTom only further bolsters the ex-Psion ranks at the company -- he'll be joining former Psion CTO Mark Gretton, and former hardware exec Ken McAlpine, who joined TomTom two years ago after a stint at Apple. Still no word on what Davies' exact role at TomTom will be, but the company has confirmed the move, and promises to provide more details at some point.[Thanks, johnny99]
Hmm, this after Nokia saying they're going all Meego their high end phones? I guess it's obvious.
@pika2000 Oh don't be a drama queen!
so basically he jumps ship when something he is working with becomes less relevant to the maker or market and moves to another company were what he is familiar with is relevant. Answers many questions to be honest, also it may mean Tomtom is looking for a new UI for a mobile phone/navigator device.
Did anyone else glance at this and read "Prison" instead of "Psion"?
@shibbybypass Yes. Glad I'm not the only speed redder around here...
Out of the frying pan and into the fire...
Probably to inject fresh blood up the ranks which is welcome. This beneficial to both parties.
@Samunosuke
*is*
@Samunosuke
Fresh blood? Are you being sarcastic?
MOre like fired i guess, considering the financial performance of Nokia, their stock is at multi year lows and their smartphones are not getting smarter, at all. They live in the 90s
@dementedacademic
To be fair, Nokia is somewhat stuck in mid 2000's. They haven't advanced much from then, but their vision is very advanced. They just need people at the top who can enable that vision.
It's probable that some of their top management are one of the issues preventing a full on change at Nokia.
I still remember back in 2000 I saw Nokia's future vision, which looks like what Meego is turning out to be. They had the idea, but lack of competition and lack of real need to push themselves in that direction slowed the meego future down a lot. It should have been done by 2006-2007 timeframe.
Moral of story is lack of competition breeds stagnation.
@dementedacademic
Demented all right. Since MeeGo is poised for their charge into premium categories while Symbian 3 is also bound for their lower-end portfolio, their featurephones will only get smarter and their smartphones wiser.
@ounkeo
"Moral of story is lack of competition breeds stagnation."
Yep, socialism doesn't work.
I still have very fond memories of my Series 5MX, the day the ribbon cable in the hinge broke was a sad day for me indeed. Time to trawl ebay again...
@Phillomath
+1
Followed by the day my P910a died.
:-{
Nokia still extinct?
@sspirate It's never been extinct. Your comment, however, is another story. Just follow the light and let oblivion embrace you.
WHY?
WTF
They must have offered a boat load of money. I can't see a direction for TomTom that will keep them as a successful company for more than a few years.
The best they can do is sell their stuff for smartphones cheaper and direct to car manufacturers to try and retain popularity.
I'm about to play quake online.
do you think it might also have been slightly relevant to mention that the current TomTom CEO and CFO both worked at Psion ?
I guess that would require some of that journalism nonsense:
Thinking about it and as someone else has already mentioned maybe Tom Tom is now thinking with all these smart phones company's trying to take it's business away it's time they fought back.
I wouldn't say Garmins attempts have been very successful due to the horrendous delays and lack of real enthusiasm for their products but who knows maybe Tom Tom can do better. They certainly have brand recognition and plenty of fans i just wonder which OS would suit them best to build their own devices over.
I really wonder what TomTom's business model is for the long-term. They have to know that the individual GPS module market is going to shrink as more and more cell-phones have GPS systems built in and for no additional cost. TomTom needs to figure out where they're going to make cash in the long-term or they're not going to be around much longer
"stuck with [Psion] all the way up until 2003 when he left to join Symbian" -- It's worth pointing out that Symbian is descended from Psion's OS. Wikipedia says Psion transferred 130 employees to Symbian Ltd. when it was founded; presumably Davies was among them.