Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!doug-merritt
From: doug-merritt@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: "Units sold" numbers?
Message-ID: <6803@cup.portal.com>
Date: 23 Jun 88 16:11:39 GMT
References: <350@pedro.UUCP> <2899@tekig5.TEK.COM>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 30
XPortal-User-Id: 1.1001.4407

Wayne Knapp writes:
>My wife is Japanese, and even though I have an Amiga 1000 and Atari ST she 
>still wants a Mac.  In fact before coming over here the Mac was the only 
>computer she knew that she liked, and from last count there were maybe 6
>Amiga's in Japan all own by gaigin's.   My wife say's that IBM, Apple and
>even Atari are well know in Japan, but Amiga is completly unknow.

One big reason the Mac is well known is that it has excellent support
for Japanese. Also, of course it helps that it's been around long enough
for word to get out about it.

My friend in Tokyo (who owns a Mac for music applications) says that 
Atari has always had good name recognition, since "atari" is a japanese
word, after all, but that the only ST's he sees there are a few used
for music. No surprise, Atari has been pretty successful at marketing
the ST for music applications. Still, he says that the Mac is preferred
over the ST for this. Lots of Macs, very few Atari's.

Lack of success in penetrating various computer niche markets in Japan
is more the rule than the exception. Japan makes zillions of their
own brands. For Atari *and* IBM (and Cray, for that matter), it's just
not a sizeable market, even though they've got name recognition. Apple
gets a reasonable number of Macs in there because of their superb Japanese
language support (there's a separate Japanese *model* of the Mac sold there.
Keyboard differences, translated messages, etc).
	Doug
--
      Doug Merritt        ucbvax!sun.com!cup.portal.com!doug-merritt
                      or  ucbvax!eris!doug (doug@eris.berkeley.edu)
                      or  ucbvax!unisoft!certes!doug