The personal computer price wars that have swept the US and the UK and are spilling onto continental Europe are not something that Japanese manufacturers are accustomed to: the Japanese market is very competitive, but margins are traditionally very tolerable. But the arrival of the likes of Compaq Computer Corp and AST Research Inc on the Japanese market has the locals worried: are the newcomers going to shelter under the local price umbrella or are they going to break up the party by importing American-style pricing? The Asahi Shimbun has been looking at the new Compaq Prolinea line, which the company does plan to launch in Japan, and has been wincing at the prices the machines go for in the US market. A spokesman for Compaq refused to disclose the price for the 32-bit model, but said it would be 50% cheaper than Japanese products if the price is set at the same level as it is in the US.
