Not all international business stems from international joint ventures. In some cases multinational firms are developing specific products for international markets and have decided to make frontal attack on the competition. A good example is apple computer, traditionally a relatively conservative firm, which has opted for risky approach. Armed with a host of incentives and some technological advantages built into its computers, Apple decided to enter the Japanese market head on. This frontal attack has proved to be successful because although Japan has the second largest computer market in the world, and it has been growing at double digit annual rates, only 14 percent of potential users in Japan already have computer hardware installed. Moreover, Japanese competitors in recent years have been having a difficult time competing effectively with imports that are competitively priced and have state of the art technology.
Apple decided to enter Japanese market in 1989 and in three years have over 5 percent share. Apple estimates that this will rise to 10 percent by 1996, which translate into a $ 1 billion annual market for Apple. What account of this success? One answer is the company's effort in product development, which resulted in the NTX-J printer, which can handle kanji, Japan pictogram based writing system. Apple also developed Powerbook, the powerful notebook computer. The firm has prided itself on its ability to get Japanese software developer to design products for Apple computers. Beside developing new products, Apple has launched very unique and successful marketing campaigns, which has range from sponsoring Janet Jackson's Japanese rock tour to hosting a MacWorld Expo in Tokyo, which drew over 50,000 visitor.
In order to keep the current momentum, Apple will have to continue rolling out additional products that are easy to use and can quickly attract costumers. One product that clearly shows this ability is the popular MacWrite II-J word processing program. Importantly from an international management perspective, this program is specially designed for the Japanese culture by allowing users to list terms or numbers in the middle of the text and to create tables. Another feature is amikake formatting, in which a shaded box is placed over text for highlighting. MacWrite II-J has been so well developed that is now the most popular Macintosh business application in the country.
For future, Apple has decided to develop additional offerings that will allow it to continue gaining market share. Fr example one product that is scheduled to release in the near future is a series of interactive children's story on compact disc. This software run on the Macintosh and equipped with sound, and animated drawings appear on the screen with text in Japanese. Clicking a hand held mouse at the characters causes the words to be read aloud. Apple believes that this product will help it gain a foothold among young children, who, of course are future costumers. The firm also intends to develop scholastic software, including a word processing program for the elementary and secondary school markets. At the same time, the company continue to scout for other programs that can be developed for the Japanese market. Included in this considerations are new notebook models and software for small business. Apple realizes that there is a large untapped market for computer applications in Japan, and by the turn of the century the company may be one of the largest multinationals in Japan.
