Japan Computer Industry Scan articles from January 2002

Japan Computer Industry Scan archives from January 2002

FOCUS: Broadband service improving medical, welfare programs.
January 7, 2002... TOKYO, Jan. 2 Kyodo The latest in broadband services, enabling exchanges of massive amounts of information at high speeds over the Internet, are spreading fast across the country, changing people's lives even in the medical and welfare...

U.S. to ease curbs on computer exports to Russia, China.(Brief Article)
January 7, 2002... WASHINGTON, Jan. 2 Kyodo President George W. Bush announced Wednesday the United States will ease Cold War-era curbs on computer exports, allowing U.S. companies to sell more powerful products to countries such as China and Russia. ...

Sony, Toshiba, IBM to jointly develop new OS by 2005: paper.
January 7, 2002... TOKYO, Jan. 4 Kyodo Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE), Toshiba Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) have agreed to jointly develop by 2005 a computer operating system (OS) that uses broadband data transmission, a...

Fujitsu to shut down unit in Ireland.(Brief Article)
January 7, 2002... TOKYO, Jan. 4 Kyodo Fujitsu Ltd. and Fujitsu Isotec Ltd. said Friday they will shut down a joint venture in Ireland for manufacturing terminal units of information equipment as part of their global reorganization of factories. The...

Web site of nat'l hospital attacked by hackers.
January 7, 2002... TOKYO, Jan. 4 Kyodo The Web site of a national hospital in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward was hit by hackers Friday, who posted messages in English castigating Japan for the 1937-1938 Nanjing Massacre, prompting the hospital to shut it down,...

NEC to sell 2 plants to Canada firm under outsourcing deal.(Brief Article)
January 14, 2002... TOKYO, Jan. 8 Kyodo NEC Corp. said Tuesday it will sell two plants producing fiber-optic communications devices to Celestica Inc. of Canada as part of their strategic outsourcing agreement. The two plants are located in Miyagi and...

Head of Nintendo's U.S. unit resigns.
January 14, 2002... OSAKA, Jan. 8 Kyodo Video game giant Nintendo Co. said Tuesday that Minoru Arakawa, the president of its U.S. unit who was once considered a potential successor to the parent firm's head Hiroshi Yamauchi, has resigned. Industry...

Fujitsu to put 5,000 workers on temporary leave.
January 14, 2002... TOKYO, Jan. 9 Kyodo Fujitsu Ltd. said Wednesday it plans to have some 5,000 employees take leave from work for periods ranging from some months to a year as part of a work-sharing plan to cut personnel costs amid a slump in the...

Record number of computer viruses reported in Dec.
January 14, 2002... TOKYO, Jan. 10 Kyodo The Information-technology Promotion Agency (IPA), affiliated with the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry, said Thursday it received 3,900 reports of computer viruses in December, a record since it began keeping...

IBM tops U.S. patent list, NEC ranks 2nd.(Brief Article)
January 14, 2002... NEW YORK, Jan. 10 Kyodo International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) received the most patents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in 2001 at 3,411, followed by NEC Corp. of Japan at 1,953, the USPTO said Thursday. Six...

Microsoft's Xbox to retail for 34,800 yen.(Brief Article)
January 14, 2002... TOKYO, Jan. 11 Kyodo Microsoft Corp. of the United States will sell its Xbox video game console for 34,800 yen in Japan, its Japanese unit said Friday. The suggested retail price is higher than the 29,800 yen for Sony Computer...

Japanese, English voice recognition system set up for deaf.
January 21, 2002... SAPPORO, Jan. 15 Kyodo A voice recognition system that enables conversion into subtitles has been developed for deaf participants attending an international conference of disabled people in Sapporo set for October this year, according...

Omron enters fiber optic device market.(Brief Article)
January 21, 2002... OSAKA, Jan. 17 Kyodo Omron Corp., a maker of automated-control equipment, said Thursday it has entered the market for fiber optic devices used for optic transmission systems in households. During fiscal 2002 that starts April 1, the...

Worldwide PC shipments down 4.6% to 128.06 mil. units in 2001.
January 21, 2002... TOKYO, Jan. 18 Kyodo Worldwide shipments of personal computers (PCs) came to 128.06 million units in 2001, down 4.6% from the previous year, the Japanese unit of U.S. technology research firm Gartner Inc. said Friday. Of them,...

Kyocera to spin off printer business to Kyocera Mita.(Brief Article)
January 21, 2002... TOKYO, Jan. 18 Kyodo Kyocera Corp. said Friday it will spin off its printer production and related operations to its wholly owned subsidiary Kyocera Mita Corp. on April 1. The move is aimed at strengthening the Kyocera group's...

Sharp, allies develop projector based on vector quantization.
January 28, 2002... OSAKA, Jan. 22 Kyodo Sharp Corp., Tohoku University and I&F Inc. jointly said Tuesday they have developed a high-resolution wireless image projector system for conference use in which the university's vector quantization still-image...

Sony unit to launch PlayStation 2 in South Korea.(Brief Article)
January 28, 2002... TOKYO, Jan. 24 Kyodo Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. said Thursday it will begin sales of its PlayStation 2 (PS2) home video game console in South Korea on Feb. 22. Sony Computer Entertainment Korea Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary...