AT&T to Market Personal Communicator in Partnership with EO, Inc.

November 16, 1992 — AT&T announced Monday that the world’s first personal communicator will be available to the public in AT&T Phone Centers in early 1993.

The AT&T Personal Communicator 440, which the company is demonstrating at COMDEX, is a pen-based, hand-held device that integrates computing and communications capabilities. The basic Personal Communicator 440 allows users to take notes, keep an appointment calendar, maintain a telephone/address list and add voice comments to documents. Equipped with the optional modem, the device allows users to send and receive electronic mail and facsimiles. With an optional cellular phone, it allows voice calls over the regular telephone network or cellular network, and wireless transfer of electronic mail and fax.

“We’re delivering on our promise of a future where handwriting and images are equally at home on the telecommunications network as the spoken word is today,” said Robert M. Kavner, group executive of AT&T Communications Products. “This is not a computer that sends and receives messages, or a cellular telephone that computes. It is a completely new direction for telecommunications, and we see a future where almost everyone will use devices like this to communicate easily and effectively with voice, data, handwriting and pictures, regardless of where they are.”

Designed and supplied by EO, Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., the Personal Communicator 440 is one of the first to incorporate AT&T’s Hobbit chip, a high-performance, low-power microprocessor intended specifically for the person-al communicator market, and the PenPoint operating system from GO Corp. The device weighs less than 2-1/2 pounds and measures approximately 11 x 7 x 1 inches, making it smaller and lighter than most portable computers.

In order to accommodate all the functions envisioned for this new class of devices, the AT&T Personal Communicator 440 will have the operating system and necessary software already loaded in Read-Only-Memory (ROM). The software includes GO Mail (a pen version of AT&T Mail communication software developed in partnership with AT&T EasyLink Services) and GO Fax, a calendar application and a note-taking application. Prices will range from $1,999 for a basic model to $2,899 for a fully-equipped device.

The modem allows access to the largest electronic mail system in the United States, reaching more than 20 million people in 160 countries around the world with e-mail and fax.

The AT&T personal communicator includes a serial port, cable and built-in software, allowing the exchange of data with any IBM- compatible computer, a parallel port for connection to a printer or optional floppy drive, a standard phone jack and a port for connection of a keyboard. A built-in microphone and speaker allow for voice-annotation of documents.

According to John Hanley, AT&T Consumer Products group vice president, the Personal Communicator 440 will be in selected Phone Centers by the end of the first quarter, 1993. “People have been talking about personal communicators for a long time. We’re going to let people see them, touch them, use them in their daily lives.”

Speaking about the company’s commitment to personal communications, Hanley said that AT&T is “convinced people will be drawn to this new technology, and will see its enormous benefits. Along with our partners in this venture, we are about to change the way people keep in touch.”

EO, Inc., designer of the AT&T Personal Communicator 440, was founded in 1991 with support from AT[T] Matsushita Electrical Industrial Company, Ltd.; and Marubeni Corporation. The device will be manufactured in Matsushita’s assembly plant in Illinois.

CONTACT:
AT&T
Steve O’Donnell, 201/581-3904 (office)
201 228-6707 (home)
or
Kathy Coulahan, 201/581-4037 (office)
908/725-4718 (home)