Siemens AG, Nixdorf Computer AG and the Blaupunkt arm of Robert Bosch GmbH have joined forces to bid for a contract on offer from the Deutsche Bundespost to supply 300,000 cheapo viewdata terminals for use with the national BTX Bildschirmtext system built by IBM Deutschland GmbH. BTX has been a commercial disappointment so far with only 118,400 subscribers, far fewer than the Bundespost had hoped, Agence France Presse reports from Munich – but the hope is that by offering a terminal at under Dm1,000 – $600 – the attractions of the system can be widened. That price is still however way above what is charged for Minitel terminals for the Teletel system in France. It appears that although Siemens, Nixdorf and Bosch actually submitted separate bids, each offered the same solution, a terminal using Siemens electronics, with Blaupunkt doing the keyboard, screen and cabinet, and Nixdorf doing the marketing. Other contenders for the contract include the PKI arm of Philips NV, Standard Elektrik Lorenz arm of Alcatel NV, Loewe GmbH, and Amper SA of Spain.
