(Japanese Site)
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March 19, 1998 (TOKYO) -- NEC Corp., Hewlett-Packard Japan Ltd.,
and Hitachi Ltd. debuted mobile terminals and handheld PCs
running the Japanese version of Microsoft Windows CE2.0 and
targeted for sale at corporations.
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Hitachi plans to sell 60 percent of its products to corporations
and 40 percent to homes. NEC and HP Japan expect 50 percent to be
sold to corporations and 50 percent to individuals.
"We will sell our Windows CE2.0 product to companies in the hope
of making it an integral part of their systems for sales support.
A salesperson will be able to send or receive email and reports
outside the work place using Windows CE2.0 machines," said
Yoshihiro Kawakatsu, a product planning department manager in
Hitachi's information media systems group.
"We are preparing several mail options for connection of a PC to
a LAN, and expect to receive orders from companies' information
systems departments," said Yoshi Takayama, senior vice president
of NEC.
Japanese makers are shifting Windows CE towards corporations
because the market surrounding PCs is changing.
Masayasu Bando, a marketing center manager of personal systems
group of HP Japan said, "The mobile terminal market for the home
has been suffered from sagging sales of PCs, and there's a
predominant [Sharp Corp.] Zaurus series that has secured a
certain amount of market share. Looking at the corporate market,
there's a positive sign in their business mind -- they're
thinking about investing in information infrastructure. Sales for
corporations will dramatically increase."
The released Windows CE2.0 products are aimed at a new market
independent of the notebook PC or personal digital assistant
(PDA) markets. That market is terminals with a 640 x 240 pixel
color liquid-crystal display (LCD), operative for around 10
hours, and a retail price in the range of 100,000 yen (US$775).
However, the terminals weigh as much as a mini-notebook PC. In
addition, a mini-note PC from a generation earlier can be bought
for around 100,000 yen, which makes a Windows CE machine
difficult to differentiate from it and less attractive in the
consumer market.
This is why the makers are shifting their target from general
consumers to corporate users by enhancing LAN and groupware
functions.
Even then, the Windows CE2.0 market will stay small for a while.
Hitachi's "Persona" is expected to ship a monthly volume of 5,000
units in Japan and NEC's "Mobile Gear II" 15,000. HP Japan's
"HP620LX" is to ship 70,000 units annually.
Even with the planned production by Compaq Computer KK of Japan
and Casio Computer Co., Ltd. added to total shipments, the market
size as a whole will be 200,000 to 300,000 units a year, HP
Japan's Bando said. This is only one-tenth of the notebook PC
market of around 2.5 million units shipped annually.
Judging from the companies' target figures, Windows CE products
have yet to become mainstream mobile terminals, market watchers
said.
Related stories: NEC to Sell Windows CE 2.0 Mobile Info
Terminals
(Nikkei Multimedia)
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