Sharp Corp has turned to the Alcatel NV unit of Alcatel Alsthom SA in its search for a short cut into the Groupe Speciale Mobile cellular phones. The two will collaborate on cellular telephones and Personal Mobile Communication products and are looking at combining their expertise to create new Personal Digital Assistants during the first half of next year. Before then, Sharp will sell Alcatel phones. At the moment, people have schedulers, they have portable computers, they have mobile telephones and they have mobile faxes. Those are all separate products and people are carrying a big load around, Jacques Dunogue, president Alcatel Telecom Business Systems Division, said: the aim is to have all that in one terminal which fits in one pocket. The company expects the global market for telephones using the European digital cellular standard to rise to 100m subscribers by the year 2000 from 21m in 1996, by which time it estimates 50% will be in Europe, 30% in Asia and 20% in the rest of the world.
