(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
•PC Industry Leaders Exchanged Ideas for the 21st Century
October 2, 1998 (TOKYO) -- Executives representing the computer industry in Japan discussed ways to boost Japan's sagging PC market in a panel discussion at today's World PC Forum 98. The Forum is taking place concurrently with World PC Expo 98.
In a discussion entitled "PC's New Challenges - Create the Digital World in the 21st Century," the seven executives described their companies' business strategies and discussed measures to stimulate the market, issues for the computer industry, and mechanisms for creating a digital society for the coming century.
The panel discussion was also a commemoration of the 15th anniversary of a magazine Nikkei Personal Computing.
Panelists taking part in the discussion were Eiko Harada, president of Apple Japan, Inc.; Yoshi Takayama, senior vice president of NEC Corp.; Kunitake Ando, corporate senior vice president of Sony Corp.; Tetsuya Mizoguchi, senior vice president of Toshiba Corp.; Tatsuyuki Saeki, vice president of IBM Japan, Ltd.; Tadayasu Sugita, senior vice president of Fujitsu Ltd.; and Makoto Naruke, president of Microsoft Co., Ltd.
The discussion is chaired by Shunichi Fujita, editor-in-chief of Nikkei Personal Computing.
Apple: Creating New Markets
Referring to the fact that iMac got off to an excellent start in the consumer market, Harada explained that the iMac was developed around Apple's tradition of creating an innovative market rather than working for a larger market share. Harada said Apple will differentiate two lines of products, for professional users and for home users, to provide machines with clear target.
Toshiba: Harmonizing PCs and AVs
Ando of Sony said his company prefers to cultivate a new market that targets consumers of audio-visual appliances. The company has instituted a group called VAIO Center, where people from Sony's various sections gather to develop products following VAIO.
Mizoguchi from Toshiba predicted a unification of audio-visual appliances and PCs in the future. The company is launching an engineering group with representatives from PC, digital TV, DVD and other departments.
Recycling Old PCs
Speakers exchanged opinions about practical applications for used computers and recycling old PCs. Naruke of Microsoft said the company is thinking of selling Windows CE as a packaged operating system for PCs powered by old 286 or 386 CPUs.