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To: Humblefrank who wrote (29038)	2/2/1998 5:29:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 50808

Toshiba to start build-to-order notebook PC sales......................... infoworld.com By Rob Guth InfoWorld Electric Posted at 7:22 AM PT, Feb 2, 1998 TOKYO -- Toshiba will begin selling its high-end notebook PCs on a build-to-order basis in April, the head of the company's international PC business said here in an interview Friday. The move follows that of other leading PC vendors, which have resorted to direct sales in an effort to lower costs and the time required to bring products to market, he added. Toshiba will kick off the service in the United States with its Tecra notebooks and high-end models from its Satellite portables range. The company may then follow up with desktop PC sales later in the year, according to Fumio Yamashita, senior manager at the personal computer division, international operations for Toshiba. The company has sold PCs directly in Japan since October of last year. The build-to-order service -- in which customers can order models by telephone and then have the PCs shipped directly from Toshiba -- will be only offered to corporate customers, Yamashita said. The move makes Toshiba something of a latecomer to the group of leading computer vendors that have already added direct sales programs, such as build-to-order or configure-to-order, to their traditional PC sales methods -- most of which depend on resellers or other distributors. Vendors already selling direct include Compaq, Acer, and IBM. Toshiba's shift in sales behavior comes in response to the success of Dell, which basically derives all of its revenues from direct sales. Taking orders by telephone or via the Internet and selling direct to customers enables Dell and other direct sellers to cut time-to-market. In addition, the sales model lessens the risk that a PC vendor will be stuck with excess components and inventory if demand should fall unexpectedly. For Toshiba, the benefits such a sales model can provide have particular resonance. The company, once untouchable in the notebook market, has stumbled under several quarters of excess inventory. The Japanese vendor has tried over the past year to sweep out excess inventory, but still has about one-month's worth of excess PCs left, according to Yamashita. Toshiba expects to rid itself of that expensive inventory by April, and then "aggressively challenge our competition," Yamashita said. Toshiba Corp., in Tokyo, can be reached at toshiba.co.jp. Rob Guth is a Tokyo correspondent for the IDG News Service, an InfoWorld affiliate.