Having conquered the notebook world, Toshiba Corp is taking miniaturization a couple of steps further and come out with a challenger for Nokia Oy’s Nohia 9000 cellular phone-palmtop computer combination. The Personal Digital Assistant competes with three comparable devices already launched in Japan – by Kyocera Corp, Sanyo Electric Co and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co – to exploit the vast popularity of the Personal Handyphone System enhanced Telepoint networks. The system is based on cordless phone technology and requires the user to be in the immediate vicinity of a base station, but in contrast to the failed Telepoint systems in the UK, enables calls to be received as well as initiated. It costs less than full-powered cellular phones. Toshiba calls its new baby the Genio PCV100 and claims it is the first product to combine the functions of electronic mail, Internet access, cordless phone and personal information manager. It runs under the GeOS operating system from Geoworks Inc, in which Toshiba invested $4.5m in 1995 (CI No 2,787), which implies an 8086-derivative processor. It has a 3.5 liquid crystal display and weighs 7 oz, making it the world’s smallest and lightest Internet viewer, the company said. It stores 1Mb of data, more than any of the three rival products, and a further 2Mb can be added in the form of a removable SmartMedia memory card the size of a postage stamp. Data can be transferred between the Genio and a desktop computer, either by direct connection using a serial cable or via an infra-red communications port. The Genio will be available in Japan from April 25, and will be priced at between $415 and $585, about the same as the three rivals. Toshiba failed to give the usual Japanese sales target.
