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To: Jeff Hayden who wrote (43569)	3/10/2005 2:16:27 PM
From: William F. Wager, Jr.	Respond to of 213182

In Electronics, U.S. Companies Seize Momentum From Japan... Kodak, Apple Use Software, Outsourcing to Gain Share As Sony Struggles to Grow In Digital Era, 'It's Our Turn' By GARY MCWILLIAMS Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL March 10, 2005; Page A1 For 40 years, Japan ruled the lucrative business of consumer electronics. Its manufacturing wizards -- Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer -- designed the world's hottest televisions, stereos and cameras. In the U.S., once-proud names such as Admiral, Magnavox and RCA were sold or went under. Now the momentum has shifted, and it is American companies that have some of the best-selling gadgets in the U.S. -- among them Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod digital-music player, Eastman Kodak Co.'s EasyShare digital cameras and palmOne Inc.'s Treo mobile-phone and e-mail device. The Americans' edge comes from their skill at writing software for new digital chips and from low manufacturing costs. While many Japanese companies spent years debating the merits of outsourcing versus keeping production in-house, U.S. companies have been quick to strike deals with contract manufacturers in China and elsewhere.... ...Kodak's strategy of combining off-the-shelf chips, proprietary software and outsourced manufacturing is being replicated elsewhere. The newest version of Apple's iPod digital-music player, the iPod Shuffle, combines a digital-audio chip from SigmaTel Inc. of Austin, Texas, and Apple's own music-management software. It is assembled in Taiwan by Asustek Computer Inc. The iPod beat Sony's Network Walkman to market and has won raves for its ease of use, giving it a 70% market share. Apple also offers iTunes, an Internet-based music-downloading service that works with iPod's software so music can be easily transferred and arranged on the player. Sony long tried to push the MiniDisc, a silvery disk player that was little more than a shrunken CD player. When it did finally switch to the same hard-disk technology used in the iPod, it initially refused to include the widely used MP3 music format in favor of a proprietary Sony format. Although Sony, unlike Apple, owns its own music division, its music-downloading service hasn't caught on. Elsewhere Sony's insistence on in-house technology has caused it trouble. Its digital cameras, cellphones, computers and printers use a proprietary storage card called Memory Stick. Most other camera makers use industry standard Secure Digital cards. continued, but this is the essence of the article.