Dell Computer Corp has caused a bit of a stir in Japan by replicating its US and European direct sales format in Japan, and where 15 months ago locals were tapping their noses and saying knowingly that it would never work in Japan, the approach has now been so completely vindicated that NEC Corp, the gran’daddy of the Japanese personal computer business is considering having Dell to put NEC PC-9800 series machines through its mail-order too. According to the Nippon Keizai Shimbun, NEC is expected to supply 30,000 to 40,000 personal computers in the first year. Any deal would be an OEM arrangement, with Dell putting its own name on the machines, which run a proprietary incompatible variant of MS-DOS.
