Toshiba goes direct in Japan. Next step, Europe?

Toshiba has started selling its PCs direct in Japan. Those machines include both desktops and notebooks But sources close to The Register said it would be some time before the model migrated West. The sources did not say how long. Toshiba, hit by different forces because of the weakness of Japanese currency, and which made big losses three weeks ago, as reported here, started selling PCs over Japanese wires yesterday. As reported here last week, IBM had decided its model was to sell direct. But, in that case, it was simply following the Compaq model. Toshiba UK could not comment at press time. The sources said it was reacting to market pressures, including low demand in the home market. ®