Main image: Dr David Potter CBE 1943-2026. Photograph courtesy David Potter as part of his AIT interview, 2016
Pioneer of the British tech industry David Potter CBE, who founded the iconic Psion pocket computers, died on 28 June 2026.
Potter launched Psion in 1980, and it went on to become a key driver of British technology, a leader in software for home microcomputers and developer of early handheld computers, up until the 2000s.
Born in South Africa on July 4, 1943, Potter moved to the UK in 1963 on a Beit scholarship to read natural sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge. Then in 1966 he was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship to study for a doctorate in mathematical physics at Imperial College London, where he was later appointed to teach applied science.
In 1969 he married fellow South African, journalist Dr Elaine Goldberg and his academic career in the 1970s led to roles at the University of London and at the University of California where he became Assistant Professor.
Entrepreneurship creates capital for future Psion
It was from Los Angeles that he and Elaine watched the British economy go into decline, leading to a stock market crash from 1973-74, and he told Archives of IT in his interview in 2016:
“I saw this happening from afar, and thought, this is mad. So, somebody said recently, you know, when there’s a sale on, it’s quite a good idea to buy things. So, I had savings of about £3,000, and I wrote to my bank manager, and I said, ‘Please invest them in the following six companies,’ which I didn’t know very much about – but I knew about Racal Electronics, about GEC, Arnie Weinstock’s great company. And anyway, four others. And, then I forgot about them, went on with my academic business”
When he returned to Britain his investments had more than doubled and there was the beginning of a recovery in 1975.
In the same year he went skiing in Austria and discovered the duvet. He observed that all his fellow Brits who had been on skiing holidays would have been sleeping under duvets, rather than the sheets and blankets they were used to at home. He believed they would want to “throw away their blankets and buy duvets”. He researched duvet suppliers in Britain, found a company in Boston, Lincolnshire that was making them, and put half his capital in that company. He had done his research thoroughly, the company did well and began to create the capital he would later use to form Psion.
Psion aka Potter Scientific Instruments
In 1980 Potter founded Psion – an acronym of Potter Scientific Instruments (or Nothing) – and was encouraged by his wife who believed whatever he turned his mind to he would achieve. His academic colleagues, however, thought it was a great risk ‘why leave a secure job?’ they asked.
Despite this one former colleague, Charles Davies, accepted the offer to join him (and more academics from Imperial and other universities would follow suit throughout the 1980s). Davies had completed a doctorate under Potter and was knowledgeable about computer software as he had written a major simulation program for his Ph.D. He left his post at Imperial College to become the first person to join Psion. Davies would write the software, and Potter would plan and market it. One of their early projects was a flight simulator for the ZX81.
Psion supplied software for the early computers from Sinclair Research, the ZX80 and the ZX81 and in 1982 the bundled software with the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.
By 1982/83 Psion was the largest microcomputer software creator in Britain. Beginning with databases and utility products and then computer games. They put their own brand on it and sold with Sinclair and Acorn.
The Psion Organiser
In 1984, Psion launched the Organiser range, and in 1986, its successor the Organizer II, which came with two slots for what were arguably the computer industry’s first replaceable SSDs.
Psion then began developing its Sixteen Bit Organiser (SIBO) family of devices in 1987 and its own new multitasking operating system named EPOC, to run its third-generation product, Laptops (MC), industrial handhelds (HC and Workabout) and PDA (Series 3) products.
In 1989, Psion introduced all-solid-state MC laptops. Although unsuccessful, the MC’s hardware was miniaturized to create the pocket-sized Psion Series 3 in 1991, and Psion’s bespoke GUI OS became EPOC16 operating system. The machines sold in the millions, which in turn led to the Psion 5 and netBook.
In 1998, Psion launched the Symbian Venture, creating a new company consisting of Psion’s major software, operating system software and applications, working in conjunction with the hardware and some software contributions from Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola – the big cell phone companies. They were now on a path of long-term research and development with these companies.
Later, Samsung, Sony and Matsushita joined so they were working with most of the industry. Psion retained about 40% of the company with Potter as chairman. In his Archives of IT interview, he described this as one of the most interesting things he had done in his life as he was chairing a key element of a big industry and seeing how the different companies related to each other – they had to work cooperatively – but they were all ‘enemies’. Ultimately the company didn’t succeed but its legacy continues in Android. They sold hundreds of millions of computers, smartphones and cell phones using the operating system but it did not come to dominate.
Potter resigned as Chief Executive in 1999 and in 2000 sold £12.6 million worth of Psion shares, only to see them quadruple in value within months.
He remained as Chairman until his retirement in 2009 and the company was subsequently sold to Motorola.
Legacy
In the 1997 New Year Honours list, Potter was appointed a CBE for services to the manufacturing industry and in 2001 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineers.
With his wife he established The David and Elaine Potter Foundation as a charitable grant giving foundation in 1999 to encourage a stronger and fairer society. Since then, it has granted more than £23 million to registered charities in the UK and abroad, primarily for projects that support education and civil society.