Apple's failure to win Japanese order reflects barriers for computer makers
Article Abstract:
The Japanese government plans a large purchase of microcomputers for use in that nation's elementary and high schools. American companies, such as Apple, hope that some of the money will come to them. The planned computer purchase is part of a Japanese 13.2 trillion yen ($122.91 billion) economic stimulus package. The US has been negotiating with Japan, trying to influence the Japanese government buy more foreign goods and services, but the negotiations have yielded inconclusive results. In Sakai City, which is near Osaka, a local politician named Shunei Hasegawa has complained that the city's education committee decided to buy Fujitsu Ltd computers for junior high schools even though a panel of city experts had said Apple Macintosh computers were easier to use, easily networked and in other ways better. Hasegawa says such poor decisions are a source of Japan-US trade friction.
Publication Name: The Wall Street Journal Western Edition
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0193-2241
Year: 1993
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Dell Computer escalates price war in Japan by introducing low-cost PCs
Article Abstract:
Dell Computer Corp, the world's fifth biggest PC maker, announces plans to sell six types of top-of-the-line PCs at prices 25 percent to 60 percent lower than those charged by its rivals. Dell CEO Michael Dell says the company will keep prices low by selling through mail order. The full-scale launch of Dell's Japanese operations is the latest in a series of aggressive moves by American microcomputer makers into the Japanese market. IBM and Compaq have already rolled out low-priced PCs for the Japanese market. For years, NEC has charged high prices while maintaining more than a 50 percent share of the nation's PC market, the world's second-biggest. NEC has responded to lagging sales by rolling out a new line of low-end PCs that were as much as 60 percent cheaper than the machines they replaced.
Publication Name: The Wall Street Journal Western Edition
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0193-2241
Year: 1993
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Computer makers face hidden vulnerability: supplier concentration; checkpoints; many of their crucial parts and materials are made by just a few factories; tracing the PC's ingredients
Article Abstract:
The devastating explosion at a factory in Japan that makes 65 percent of the the essential chemical ingredient available in the world for computer memory chips has caused a dramatic price hike and other problems in the semiconductor industry. The incident has also caused the industry to rethink its supplier strategy. Most of the world's semiconductor component suppliers are located in Japan. The combination of increased competition, cost reduction and consolidation has sharply reduced the number of suppliers that make crucial semiconductor components. As a result, whenever there is a problem, such as the explosion at the Sumitomo Chemical Co, the entire electronics industry faces the danger of falling into a state of paralysis.
Publication Name: The Wall Street Journal Western Edition
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0193-2241
Year: 1993
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: Apple finds it hard to meet iMac demand. IBM plans direct sales for some servers
- Abstracts: Pickens invests in venture that claims it's able to bar viruses from computers. Convex, Hewlett-Packard set to begin swapping software for supercomputers
- Abstracts: Apple may sell notebook computers with software through retail outlets. Apple to unveil mail order catalog and sell directly to big companies
- Abstracts: In-laws in the family business. Two "laws" for family businesses
- Abstracts: An open letter to Bill and Hillary. Family-owned, professionally managed