NEC Corp reckons that Hewlett-Packard Co is so far in the lead in printing technologies that rather than try to take the company on, it is going into partnership on an effort to develop low-priced colour ink-jet printers. In effect, the agreement simply means that Hewlett-Packard will manufacture the printers for sale by NEC, although it is dressed up to sound as if NEC is making a bigger contribution than simply marketing the printers with its PC-9800 series personal computers, which still dominate the market in Japan. The deal is of benefit to NEC because it lags Canon Inc and Seiko Epson Co in printers. The ink-jets are expected to cost around $930 – 100,000 yen is a key price point in Japan, and the partners hope to sell 60,000 in the first year.
