Xref: utzoo soc.culture.japan:4038 comp.sys.mac:51692 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rice!uw-beaver!cornell!heights!jiro From: jiro@heights.cit.cornell.edu Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan,comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: Apple Computer in Japan Keywords: Macintosh Japan Software Message-ID: <1990Mar29.193945.10509@heights.cit.cornell.edu> Date: 29 Mar 90 19:39:45 GMT References: <16908@well.sf.ca.us> Distribution: soc Organization: Cornell Information Technologies, Workstation Resources, Ithaca, NY Lines: 61 In article <16908@well.sf.ca.us> jng@well.sf.ca.us (James N. Gershfield) writes: > >Articles have appeared in the press recently stating that John >Sculley intends to make Apple Japan a one billion dollar (revenues) >company by 1993. > >I am interested to hear what the current feeling is in Japan toward >the Apple Macintosh computer. Who is using the Mac? What is it being >used for? Is the Mac really growing in popularity in Japan? > >Please post replies to the net. However, if I receive E-mail, I will >summarize and post summary to the net. > >Thank you very much. > >Jim Gershfield >jng@well.sf.ca.us Well, the Macintosh is a very respected computer in Japan. I worked for a while as a computer consultant to some major foreign and Japanese firm in Tokyo and the Mac was the machine of choice. Why? It was truly bilingual under KanjiTalk (the Kanji MacOS). That meant that bosses could write up documents in English, secretaries could write them one's in Japanese, they could both use the same applications, etc.. In fact, for a while the Mac had one of the most powerful Japanese word processors on the market (this was back in the days of the Mac + w/ Kanji ROMS). Also, the ability to laser print Kanji fonts has no doubt been a big plus. People use the Mac also to compose a lot of software, although the Atari ST is a big competitor (due to its MIDI ports). But since you can get a Mac+ for about Y198,000 (try STEP in Shibuya), the price difference that had kept Macs out of the mainstream is declining. All is not golden however. Canon has VERY bad service unless you are a VERY big customer. Apple Japan? Hah! That's the biggest joke I've ever heard. I don't know what Sculley is up to, but if he wants to get anything done, he better clear up the Canon/Apple Japan dichotomochy. Everytime my company tried to phone ANYONE in Apple Japan, they were "at a meeting." ;-} Canon doesn't really want to service the Macs it sells or provide service. Apple Japan doesn't know what it is doing (anyone remember Apple Japan went bankrupt/broke for about a year before reorganizing? This was the post-Apple // pre-Mac era, I think). Now that Canon is real buddy-buddy with Jobs-san and NeXT, I think its role will decline in the future. Apple Japan should use this as a good reason to get working. At present, Mac II prices are just too expensive (read 200% of US prices) if they go through Canon/Apple Japan. The prices I quoted before are street prices, private companies that trade through mail order companies in the US. An interesting anecdote that should drive the Apple America crazy. The company I referred to earlier, STEP, apparently gets its Macintoshes from American exchange or college students who get them at AUConsortium prices. I won't divulge my source, but it is common knowledge in Tokyo. (One clue to this is that all the serial numbers are filed/scaped off the Macs, another is the English manuals :-). Well, I don't want to tirade too much. - Jiro Nakamura - jiro@heights.cit.cornell.edu DISCLAIMER: I don't work for Cornell. The company I work for in Japan doesn't really care what I say.