6 ms·

What's the laptop market like in Japan anyway? I don't really know a lot about it, but it's always interesting to see these random Panasonic or Fujitsu laptops

by Ezhik 10y ago

What's the laptop market like in Japan anyway? I don't really know a lot about it, but it's always interesting to see these random Panasonic or Fujitsu laptops not sold here, or those rare Japan-exclusive experimental ThinkPads.

atjamielittle 10y ago
One thing that I noticed when looking around was that screen resolution didn't seem to be a big focus. The Panasonic models still have optical media. I can't think of a single western laptop that has a Blu-Ray burner in it. There might be some gaming laptops with that, but they would probably be 17 inch monsters and not extremely lightweight laptops.
- TulliusCicero 10y ago
  In the US, PC gamers at least abandoned physical media very early.
TheAceOfHearts 10y ago
I work for a startup with roughly half of its employees working from Japan. All developers use Apple laptops. I can't remember off the top of my head if non-developers used other brands.
- santaclaus 10y ago
  I work with a few developers from Japan - MacBook Pros running Windows, across the board.
  - walterbell 10y ago
    Why do they run Windows on an expensive MacBook Pro, e.g. how is power management, HiDPI, driver support, etc? Is this mostly Windows 7 or 10? Why not macOS + Windows in a VM?
    - raihansaputra 10y ago
      I don't know about running Windows in a VM, but drivers are very good and battery life (even on Windows) is probably better than most Windows laptop. Not to mention you could get a fully-loaded MacBook Pro almost anywhere on the planet if something happens.
    - gcb0 10y ago
      probably USA centric company that forces macbooks on all employees for IT policies. But then the devs need to work on compilers/debuggers for hardware that only runs on windows.
      - walterbell 10y ago
        How do IT departments manage policy for a lot of Macs? MacOS server MDM is for small biz. Are there good OSS tools? I've seen a paper on cfengine, https://www.usenix.org/legacy/event/lisa10/tech/full_papers/Bass.pdf https://www.usenix.org/legacy/event/lisa10/tech/full_papers/...
        ben1040 10y ago
        Everywhere I've worked that deployed Macs in any large capacity also used this management suite from Jamf. https://www.jamf.com/products/jamf-pro/ https://www.jamf.com/products/jamf-pro/
        astrange 10y ago
        I'm amazed that works, but don't do what they did. Use configuration profiles where possible. https://developer.apple.com/library/content/featuredarticles/iPhoneConfigurationProfileRef/Introduction/Introduction.html https://developer.apple.com/library/content/featuredarticles...
        gcb0 10y ago
        ironically my 20k employee corp uses Microsoft Active Directory.
    - wapz 10y ago
- donw 10y ago
  Can confirm: developers here that work with foreign companies are almost all on Macs. Windows still reigns absolutely supreme in native companies, though.
mikekchar 10y ago
As others have said, Apple has a very strong presence in Japan. If I go to an electronics store, usually half the models on display are Apple. Panasonic and Fujitsu pretty much rule the desktop with bizarre television/computer fusions. Imagine a TV about the thickness of one of the old plasma TVs. It usually has a stand, but I think you can also wall mount it. You can watch and record TV on them, so they are basically consumer devices. For laptops, the biggest brand (other than apple) is probably Asus (based on retail floor space ;-) ). Sony, Panasonic, Fujitsu and Toshiba pretty much share the rest. Toshiba is apparently exiting the market soon, though. From my perspective, it seems that the market is split between very high end, large format, desktop-replacement machines and tiny machines. There is not very much in the middle. I live in the countryside, though. It is very possible I don't see the interesting models where I live. When I worked at a high school, all of the machines were actually Dell. It surprised me greatly. One thing that most people don't realise is that Japanese electronics are expensive compared to the rest of the world. If you have high end purchases (like a computer), you can fly to Korea and the money you save will pay for the flight, easily. Especially with the insanely high yen, American machines are also a pretty good deal. I like to support the local economy, but when Toshiba exits, I might be stuck finding the kind of machine I like to use.
- drabiega 10y ago
  > One thing that most people don't realise is that Japanese electronics are expensive compared to the rest of the world. If you have high end purchases (like a computer), you can fly to Korea and the money you save will pay for the flight, easily. Especially with the insanely high yen, American machines are also a pretty good deal. This is pretty interesting because my experience has been that electronics were pretty expensive in Korea, as well. When my wife's laptop died while she was working in Korea, I ended up bringing her a new Samsung laptop from the US on my next visit because it was considerably cheaper here than buying it there.
- janneklouman 10y ago
  I'd like to add NEC to your list (surprised no one is mentioning them). They completely dominated the Japanese PC market during the 80's and 90's, and even though the've been declining heavily since, it's still a strong brand in Japan holding about a fifth of the market share.

by Ezhik 10y ago

atjamielittle 10y ago

One thing that I noticed when looking around was that screen resolution didn't seem to be a big focus. The Panasonic models still have optical media. I can't think of a single western laptop that has a Blu-Ray burner in it. There might be some gaming laptops with that, but they would probably be 17 inch monsters and not extremely lightweight laptops.

TulliusCicero 10y ago
In the US, PC gamers at least abandoned physical media very early.

TheAceOfHearts 10y ago

I work for a startup with roughly half of its employees working from Japan. All developers use Apple laptops. I can't remember off the top of my head if non-developers used other brands.

santaclaus 10y ago
I work with a few developers from Japan - MacBook Pros running Windows, across the board.
- walterbell 10y ago
  Why do they run Windows on an expensive MacBook Pro, e.g. how is power management, HiDPI, driver support, etc? Is this mostly Windows 7 or 10? Why not macOS + Windows in a VM?
  - raihansaputra 10y ago
    I don't know about running Windows in a VM, but drivers are very good and battery life (even on Windows) is probably better than most Windows laptop. Not to mention you could get a fully-loaded MacBook Pro almost anywhere on the planet if something happens.
  - gcb0 10y ago
    probably USA centric company that forces macbooks on all employees for IT policies. But then the devs need to work on compilers/debuggers for hardware that only runs on windows.
    - walterbell 10y ago
      How do IT departments manage policy for a lot of Macs? MacOS server MDM is for small biz. Are there good OSS tools? I've seen a paper on cfengine, https://www.usenix.org/legacy/event/lisa10/tech/full_papers/Bass.pdf https://www.usenix.org/legacy/event/lisa10/tech/full_papers/...
      - ben1040 10y ago
        Everywhere I've worked that deployed Macs in any large capacity also used this management suite from Jamf. https://www.jamf.com/products/jamf-pro/ https://www.jamf.com/products/jamf-pro/
      - astrange 10y ago
        I'm amazed that works, but don't do what they did. Use configuration profiles where possible. https://developer.apple.com/library/content/featuredarticles/iPhoneConfigurationProfileRef/Introduction/Introduction.html https://developer.apple.com/library/content/featuredarticles...
      - gcb0 10y ago
        ironically my 20k employee corp uses Microsoft Active Directory.
  - wapz 10y ago
donw 10y ago
Can confirm: developers here that work with foreign companies are almost all on Macs. Windows still reigns absolutely supreme in native companies, though.

mikekchar 10y ago

As others have said, Apple has a very strong presence in Japan. If I go to an electronics store, usually half the models on display are Apple. Panasonic and Fujitsu pretty much rule the desktop with bizarre television/computer fusions. Imagine a TV about the thickness of one of the old plasma TVs. It usually has a stand, but I think you can also wall mount it. You can watch and record TV on them, so they are basically consumer devices. For laptops, the biggest brand (other than apple) is probably Asus (based on retail floor space ;-) ). Sony, Panasonic, Fujitsu and Toshiba pretty much share the rest. Toshiba is apparently exiting the market soon, though. From my perspective, it seems that the market is split between very high end, large format, desktop-replacement machines and tiny machines. There is not very much in the middle. I live in the countryside, though. It is very possible I don't see the interesting models where I live. When I worked at a high school, all of the machines were actually Dell. It surprised me greatly. One thing that most people don't realise is that Japanese electronics are expensive compared to the rest of the world. If you have high end purchases (like a computer), you can fly to Korea and the money you save will pay for the flight, easily. Especially with the insanely high yen, American machines are also a pretty good deal. I like to support the local economy, but when Toshiba exits, I might be stuck finding the kind of machine I like to use.

drabiega 10y ago
> One thing that most people don't realise is that Japanese electronics are expensive compared to the rest of the world. If you have high end purchases (like a computer), you can fly to Korea and the money you save will pay for the flight, easily. Especially with the insanely high yen, American machines are also a pretty good deal. This is pretty interesting because my experience has been that electronics were pretty expensive in Korea, as well. When my wife's laptop died while she was working in Korea, I ended up bringing her a new Samsung laptop from the US on my next visit because it was considerably cheaper here than buying it there.
janneklouman 10y ago
I'd like to add NEC to your list (surprised no one is mentioning them). They completely dominated the Japanese PC market during the 80's and 90's, and even though the've been declining heavily since, it's still a strong brand in Japan holding about a fifth of the market share.