IBM, Nippon Telegraph make PDA
IBM and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone are making a personal digital assistant.
Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
IBM Japan and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, Japan's largest phone company, have developed a personal digital assistant, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan's
largest economic daily.
The PDA weighs a little more than a pound and runs a Japanese version of Windows 3.1, allowing input with an electronic stylus, the report said.
Data is sent via cellular phones or so-called "Personal Handy Phones." NTT will begin selling the device this fall to corporate customers, and IBM Japan is also slated to market it.
NTT is planning to make about 10,000 of these PDAs through March 1997. In 1995, Japanese consumers snatched up about 700,000 PDAs. The number is expected to increase to 1 million in 1996.