The US government has found another issue on which to berate the Japanese and exacerbate the trade friction between the two countries – but this time, the US could find itself on shaky ground: noting that US companies have less than 10% of the public sector market for mainframes, where they have 30% of the commercial market – IBM Japan says its share is only 2% to 3% US trade officials are rounding on the Japanese manufacturers and bemoaning the acknowledged discounts that they offer to ministries and local government bodies; the discounts are put at around 20% – probably more although 50% is regarded as too high, and the Japanese companies say that they reckon to make up the shortfall with later sales of software, and that public sector customers don’t have the budgets to pay the market price; the problem for the US side is discounting of mainframes to all customers is rife in both the US and in Europe.
