NEC unveils a kinder, gentler corporate image for next 20 years: out goes Rising Sun Red
Japanese companies feel they need to approach the Millennium with a new image: Fujitsu Ltd was first off the blocks and now NEC has unveiled a new corporate vision and corporate identity which it hopes will give it a more up-to-date and global image. The vision is based on the concept of NEC contributing to the creation of a Holonic Society in the years to 2010. The Holonic Society was a concept created by the current president Dr Sekimoto, to indicate a society where individual creativity can flourish in economic prosperity, environmental diversity and social cohesion. NEC formed a group of 100 young employees those whom it hopes will still be around in 2010 – to develop a vision for NEC activities in the future. On the basis of their input, NEC now says its will be changing its image from that of a primarily hardware-oriented company to focus on the systems and network service business as well as what it calls life creativity business. A new corporate logo has been chosen getting away from the aggressive hinomaru – Rising Sun – red (not much is rising in the Japanese economy just at the moment), a neutral and nature-oriented blue colour and a more modern typeface will symbolise the new NEC, and a new slogan will be adopted – C&C for Human Potential. In Japan the acronym NEC will replace the variety of names by which group companies are known – Nippon Denki, Nichiden and so forth. The cost of changing the corporate mark is estimated at $45m over the next five to six years.
TeleTerminal radio modem enables vending machines to squeal on vandals
NEC has begun marketing what it calls a TeleTerminal Adaptor, a small radio modem for use with the Tele-Terminal Communications Service run by Japan City Media Ltd. The device can transmit data from desktop or notebook personal computers, for example if carried by travelling salesmen, or automatically from vending machines, to notify a warehouse about supply or to activate an alarm if the machine is tampered with. The unit weighs 1 lb 2 oz and supports standard communications software. The Tele-Terminal Adaptor is priced at $1,600 and NEC expects to sell 5,000 units this financial year.
Nail-biting time as Cray wins appeal on sale of NEC SX-3 to Nuclear agency
Cray Research Inc is not going to let the row over the decision at the end of June to give NEC the contract for an SX3 supercomputer for the Institute of Nuclear Fusion Research and reject the C90 bid by Cray die down. On a visit to Tokyo last month, Cray chairman John Rollwagon Research, disputed the decision, saying he had four main points of dissension with the decision. These included that fact that despite superior performance in two out of three benchmark tests, Cray received equal points with NEC, and the fact that the Cray was marked down against the NEC for CPU performance. On July 9 Cray submitted a formal request for an investigation to the Supercomputer Procurement Committee of the Foreign Relations Department of the Prime Minister’s office; the request has been accepted, the first time this has occurred since the Committee was founded as part of the action program for the US-Japan Supercomputer installation procedures revised as part of a US-Japan Treaty. The Committee is to complete its deliberations within 90 days.
Company scientists perfect new way of making Carbon nanotubes
NEC Corp scientists have followed up their discovery of Carbon nanotubes – or buckytubes – announced last November, with the invention of a new technique which successfully increases the production yields for Carbon nanotubes. The new production method will prompt more research into applications for the material, NEC scientists say. Carbon nano-tubes are made by causing an electric current to pass between two Carbon electrodes in an atmosphere of Argon or other inert gases. The new technique uses modified Carbon electrodes and gas pressure at 10 times the level of previous methods. This gave a yield of Carbon nanotubes over 30% of tot
al Carbon weight compared to less than 1% in previous methods.
NEC keeps up relentless pressure as its personal computer market share hits 60%
Where American personal computer companies relentlessly cut prices on their machines, Japanese companies relentlessly introduce new models and NEC Corp has had two rounds of introductions in the past couple of months. In July the company came out with the PC-9801US desktop model with a compact footprint of 12 wide by 9.4 deep by 3.4 high. It is based on a 16MHz 80386SX. There is also a new notebook model, the PC-9801NS/L which is even more compact than current models at 4 lbs 3 oz for the floppy model, 4 lbs 8 oz for the hard disk model; it runs for 3.2 hours on a standard battery and 6.4 hours on high-power battery, and continues the sidelit monochrome screen technology of previous NEC notebook models. NEC hopes that its new low-priced models – of which it expects to sell a total of 270,000 units over the next year – will energise the Japanese personal computer market, which has showed signs of recovery. However you look at the Japanese market, NEC still has a commanding lead and the level playing field and approximately equal shares seen in other sectors of the Japanese computer market is notably absent in the personal computer market. In June for example, a sample of major retailers published in ComputerWorld Japan indicated that NEC now has around 60% of the market for new personal computers in unit terms. Fujitsu Ltd’s FM-Towns has made advances recently however, and in June had approximately 6% of computers sold. Toshiba Corp, once a high-flyer in the market with its Dynabook, has only around 7% of the notebook market, with IBM Japan’s PS/55 Note at around 10%. The Macintosh Classic alone in May had 1.6% of the overall personal computer sales. Apple Computer Inc claims around 5% of the market overall but is one of the fastest-growing both in unit and value terms. In June Apple Japan dropped its prices on all products by an average of 20%. NEC’s other new machines are two 20MHz PC-9801FS 80386SX-based models and a 12MHz 16-bit PC-9801FX series. Both types have 1.6Mb main memory. New prices are about 15% lower than current similar models, going from $2,100 for the floppy disk model PC-9801FX2, to $4,075 for the 100Mb PC-9801FS/U7 – still very expensive compared with US and UK prices. NEC hopes to sell 250,000 FX series and 100,000 FS series machines a year.
