Sluggish sales have forced Seiko-Epson Co to revise its forecasts for personal computer sales for the year to March sharply downwards: the company had been hoping to sell 39% more than last year and hit the magic quarter of a million mark, but as the fiscal year draws to a close, it is having to accept that it won’t do more than 200,000 to 220,000 – increases of 11% to 22%: overproduction of its personal computers has led to rampant discounting, with would-be buyers holding off from laying down their cash in the hope that the price will go even lower; even the company’s NoteExecutive in the fashionable book-size market has proved a disappointment since it went on sale in October, because its $3,200 tag is way above the $1,400 Toshiba Corp asks for the DynaBook and the $1,700 you pay for an NEC Corp’s 98Note book-size.
