European manufacturers are afraid of getting left behind if the emerging handheld personal communicators generate a sudden rush of consumer excitement, and rather than wait for their labs to come up with their own local products, are weighing putting their names on one of the American products and manufacturing it locally. According to Electronic News, Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG is in final discussions with Apple Computer Inc and the AT&T Co-Eo Inc-Matsushita Electric Industrial Co before deciding whether to go for the architecture of the Advanced RISC Machines Ltd ARM-based Newton, or the AT&T Co Hobbit-based device. Meantime Ing C Olivetti & Co – which has an interest in the ARM RISC via its 80% holding in Acorn Computers Plc, is developing its own personal communicator, but is also looking at the AT&T Hobbit, and may join the alliance with Eo; its own product would be the next generation of the 2.2 lbs Quaderno portable, which uses the 16MHz 8086-compatible NEC Corp V30HL chip.
