Here's an interesting link to a new data storage technology for hand held computers. Message 4442924
And here's a story about computer sales in Japan. Is this good for US companies. or bad?
Intel chief says Japan's IT cuts 'dangerous'
TOKYO, May 13 (Reuters) - The chief of the world's largest chip maker, Intel Corp , warned on Wednesday that spending cuts on information technology had dangerous ramifications for Japan's economic health.
The comments from Intel's chief executive officer Andrew Grove came as Japan suffered an unexpected decline in personal computer sales in the 1997/98 business year.
''A longer-term cutback or a slowdown even in relative terms in information technology spending has very dangerous ramifications,'' Grove told a news conference.
''Economic health and growth of the country will be equally, if not more, determined by health and welfare of electronic infrastructure,'' he said.
A trade group of Japan's major PC makers announced on Wednesday that domestic PC shipments in the last business year fell five percent to 6.85 million units, the first decline in five years.
Domestic sales decreased a steep nine percent in the January-March period of this year from the corresponding period one year ago, but the group said it expected sales to recover in the 1998/99 business year, and to grow by around five percent.
Grove said a study by research company Dataquest showed that Japan's investment in information technology in 1997 was only about half that of the United States in terms of its ratio to gross domestic product.
Grove attacked costly fees for using Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp local call networks as a reason for Japan's low connectivity to the Internet.
''Communications costs are emerging as the biggest limitation in consumer access to the Internet in Japan and in other countries,'' he said.
Asked about PC business conditions in the U.S. market, Grove said he thought Intel's second-quarter profits would stay at or below the level of its first-quarter results.
''We felt considerable inventory accumulation among our large customers. Any recovery we anticipated would only happen...in the second half of the year,'' Grove said.
Intel's microprocessor business has stumbled recently due to weak demand from PC makers such as COMPAQ Computer Corp .
During a seminar titled, ''The future of Business Computing,'' before the news conference, Grove also sketched out a roadmap for Intel chips that he said he hoped would capture a larger portion of the high-powered server and work-station markets. |
