The newly developed
EPOC16 (SIBO) operating system allowed hot swapping of the
flash memory cards in the 4 memory slots, and with the two hardware expansion slots, the device seemed ready for all future developments. But it turned out differently. For one, the prices were quite high, with the MC200 at , MC400 at , and MC600 at , and the memory cards were very costly. Also, the software was not yet fully developed for market launch: the
word processing was disappointing, the
Open Programming Language (OPL) was adopted almost unchanged from the
Organizer II and did not support the graphics abilities of the device, and professional developers had to wait over a year for the
software development kit (SDK). The announced voice compression module was never finished, and apart from a
parallel port, there were no hardware enhancements. Further, the press accused the device of incompatibility with the then standard
IBM PC compatibles. Sales were weak, and SIBO Version 2, released in 1990 as a free update, changed nothing, although it came up with a
Microsoft Word-like word processor and a significantly improved OPL version. Competitors to the MC were pocket PCs such as the
Atari Portfolio and
Poqet PC, along with portable PCs, although in contrast to the latter the MC was "a genuine laptop" and "unlike most portable computers... really is light enough to carry around with you". The screen was described as "excellent quality, readable from a wide range of angles", One benefit of omitting a backlight and in using solid-state storage was reduced power consumption and thus longer battery life. Psion claimed up to 60 hours of continuous use on 8
AA battery cells for the MC 400 and 75 hours for the MC 200, with 30 hours claimed for the MC 600, The built-in applications at launch consisted of a simple text processor, a calculator, a terminal emulator, a diary, a simple "card index" database, and an alarm manager. The text processor was regarded as "a bare-bones affair", permitting limited text styling and margin adjustments, with paragraph formatting needing to be done manually, with the presumed emphasis of the program being on the preparation of text for later transfer to another system for formatting and printing. Psion planned a "proper word processing program" for release in 1990, depending on demand, Initial reactions were positive, with one describing the MC 400 as "a very good machine and as a top-end organiser it's a winner", but reservations were expressed at the lack of "more serious software" that would take advantage of the "super screen and keyboard". == Summary of models ==