Ashlar Inc of Sunnyvale, California was in Japan the other day to announce its tie-up with computer-aided design software dealer Famotik Ltd: president Dr Martin Newell and sales and marketing vice-president Dick Davison were present while Famotik demonstrated the capabilities of the Ashlar Vellum two-dimensional drafting product on both an MS-DOS machine and an Apple Computer Inc Macintosh; Famotik’s chief executive, Mike Arashiba, who has long experience in the CAD field in Japan, having set up AutoDesk Inc’s operation, says that they are confident of more than emulating Ashlar’s US sales to date of 5,000 copies within the first year; Vellum will be sold first in its English form with a Japanese manual, and will be Japanised for release by the end of this year; a version for the Silicon Graphics Inc Iris machines will also be available later this year; Vellum on a Mac costs 298,000 yen – $2,175, approximately equivalent to the US price – It is no longer possible to price software in Japan much higher than its original price, says president Arashiba, challenging those firms that set Japanese prices at four times the US tag.
