NEC gives up on global PC sales
Stuff this, we're going home
NEC Corp declared over the weekend its intention to retreat from the PC market in the Asia-Pacific region and concentrate solely on domestic sales in Japan, following the firm’s decision to quit the computer biz in EMEA last month.
The ailing tech vendor warned it would report a net loss of 290bn yen ($2.96bn) for its fiscal year, which ends tomorrow (31 March).
In January NEC, which is the biggest PC maker in Japan, said it would axe 20,000 employees worldwide after it was forced to revise down its forecasts after posting bruising third quarter results.
Last month the vendor confessed it was pulling out of the cut-throat notebook and PC business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa due to a big fall in demand.
NEC sold its European retail computer biz – Packard Bell – to eMachines co-founder Lap Shun Hui for an undisclosed sum in 2006. A year later Acer gobbled up the brand after it acquired Packard Bell’s parent company Gateway.
Since then NEC has struggled to compete for sales outside of Japan against the likes of Acer, HP and Dell, in what has become an increasingly squeezed marketplace.
Just last week the Chinese PC manufacturer Lenovo, in a similar strategic move to NEC, confirmed it was effectively retreating from EMEA by splitting its business units in two, as it scrambles for more sales at home and in emerging markets. ®
COMMENTS
Wow, NEC, now that's a blast from the past
Maybe they pulled out of Aus long ago, but I haven't seen a NEC pc since the 386 days. I'd even forgotten that they are (were) a player.
Oh well.
NEC are not the best company to do business with in Europe I must admit. We found their notebooks to be unreliable (all of them ended up being prone to HD faults) and their Warranty Support was the worst I had ever seen.
When replacing a laptop hard drive that was on "Next Business Day" Warranty, it took them 4 weeks to get the replacement drive and finally get it to us. ("subject to part availability" being their get-out clause for any delay, they probably sourced the parts from Japan for all we know)
Needless to say we preferred doing business with Dell, Toshiba and Acer after that. Dell's support is good enough, Toshiba and Acer? Never had to ring theirs for a laptop fault.
Another example industry consolidation
This is another example of the IT industry wide consolidation a yield of competitive dynamics and the squeeze caused by the economic environment?
Much more to come probably . . .
Be interesting to see how Acer, HP, Samsung and Dell fare in the Japanese market over time . . .
Regards
Ray
