Ing C Olivetti & Co yesterday confirmed its rumoured alliance with Mountain View, California-based personal communicator developer Eo Inc, (CI No 2,061) which also has partnerships with AT&T Co in the US, and Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co and Marubeni Corp in Japan. Olivetti is to handle the European distribution for Eo’s new Hobbit RISC-based EO 440 and 880 hand held personal communicators, which combine cellular telephone, facsimile, modem and Go Corp’s pen computing technology. Olivetti will also adapt the communicators for the European market – for DECT and Groupe Speciale Mobile cellular networking compliance, for example. The new devices, currently under beta test in the US, will first ship to the UK in May. Prices have not been agreed as yet though US prices of $2,000 to $2,800 for the EO 440 and $3,000 to $3,300 for the EO 880 provide a hint on pricing.
