Windows World Expo/Tokyo '94

Last year's Windows World Expo at Makuhari Messe was not very impressive. Sure, there were a lot of Windows products on display, but the size and the content of the show gave little evidence that Windows had really caught on in Japan. What a difference a year can make!

This year's Windows World Expo '94, sponsored by IDG and Fuji Sankei, had more exhibitors, more products, and more people. According to the official count, 102,226 persons visited during the three-day affair. Although Japanese-language Windows 3.1 has been around for only about a year-and-a-half, Microsoft's flagship program has obviously become the PC standard for Japan.

Multimediocrity

There were many great products on display, much too numerous to mention here. One thing that stood out, though, was the nagging problem with multimedia applications that is still apparent: there are not really that many of them if you don't include gra phics files, games, or "adult graphics." One booth did seem to be doing a brisk business though - in a CDROM database of UFO sightings.

A lot of multimedia peripherals were to be had, but not the stuff to run on them. There are some CD-ROMbased business applications around, and more are coming, but aside from a few encyclopedias that would be useful research aids, there were no "kille r applications." Maybe next year.

One multimedia application on very prominent display was PictureTel's video conferencing system that utilizes ISDN. Bill Taylor, the company's distribution manager for personal systems, said that the company's product was doing well in Japan, and that the reception and show was very encouraging. According to Taylor, 3,000 units have been sold so Far this year in Japan (in spite of the product's astronomical price of Y12,000,000 (almost $120,000) per workstation, compared to $6,000 for the same thing i f purchased in the US). What do you get for the price of a fairsized home in the US? Two boards, camera, document camera stand, speaker phone, and software.

(T)NT Windows NT 3.5 made its Japan debut at the show. No definite release date has been set, but the product is said to be going to the beta-test stage sometime in August. Virtually all of the larger hardware vendors had the product on running on their systems . All of the booth personnel I spoke with were properly enthused about the product, but (not surprisingly) few really knew anything about it.

Combating the trade deficit

In one corner of the exhibition hall was the US Access Consortium display. A group of smaller American software developers pooled their resources and, with the help of IDG, Microsoft, and a few other companies, put up a display in the hopes of finding distribution in Japan. Shanti Bergel, who works for the group and is based in Tokyo, said the group is new (established in January of this year) but has already generated a lot of interest for its members. "Most of the companies here have an employee base of 100 people or less. A lot of companies have only two or three employees, so participating in a tradeshow is not something they can easily do."

Windows World was the first test case of this idea. "IDG gave us a lot of support in giving us this booth so we can bring the association in Japan," said Bergel. Since almost every software company started in somebody's living room or garage, the cons ortium could enable American software developers to start developing their products for a global market early on, and probably allow them to grow much quicker than if they were lust selling in their own backyard. One product I found impressive at the consortium booth was a scanner program called PaperMax and MaxMate 1.0 for Windows. Many people were interested, so look for it in the coming months.

Winning the (Windows) world cup This year, WordPerfect was proudly displaying their now well-known soccer affiliation with the Urawa Reds, and their latest version of WordPerfect Office and WordPerfect for Windows 5.2J. Both products come with excellent local telephone support for both English and Japanese speaking users support services the company has become famous for.

A large truck that some people have dubbed the WordPerfect Mobile was the centerpiece of their always-significant presence at any computer show. The oversized semi reminded me of the government-sponsored bookmobiles that make the rounds of the poorer rural towns of America that can't afford public libraries. Except this one had a guy in soccer uniform shouting "Wado Pafekuto."

Contact management

Contact management software may finally be catching on in Japan. A Japanese-language version of ACT!, the best selling American package, is being sold by Tokyo-based Advanced Coordination Technology. The company's president, Mill Kato, predicts that yo unger Japanese salesman are now hip enough to use computers to track their prospects and customers.

Japan does Windows

Things to look for next year will be the long awaited Chicago (aka Windows 4.0), which should be available in Japanese just in time for Windows World Expo '95. Microsoft has greatly cut the lead time between marketing of the US version and the Japanes e one. Japanese Chicago is scheduled to ship within three months of the English version (which, according to who you listen to, will be out by the end of 1994 or in early 1995). This is a marked difference from the one year it took Microsoft to come up wi th the Japanese edition of Windows 3.1.

James LaLonde of Microsoft was impressed and pleased with this year's Windows show. "It's twice as big. It's twice as good" [as last year's show]. He added that all the major computer vendors attended this year and had large exhibits - an obvious sign that Windows has finally arrived in Japan.

The long-sought-after platform on which all Japanese PC makers can agree may finally be at hand.