A survey by the Japan Electronic Industry Development Association reports a bustling market for office computers small business computers – in Japan with a soaring 93% increase in sales of large machines, defined as costing more than $250,000 in fiscal 1990 to March 31; growth of small machines, costing $20,000 and up was 25%; total unit shipments rose 14.5% to 185,753, valued at $4,000m – that’s down 2.6% although the industry association claims the value figures are incomplete because IBM Japan refused to reveal the relevant data; office computers include IBM’s System 36 and AS/400, Fujitsu’s K series and NEC’s System 3100A, traditionally running proprietary operating systems and applications, although a switch to Unix has started.
