Building a Better Gadget : New Boom May Fuel Rebirth of Japanese Electronics
The gloom over Japan’s electronics industry after being battered by three years of recession is beginning to lift, with new optimism reflected in an outpouring of innovative gadgets, both useful and wacky.
Sharp Corp. this month is introducing a new device to transmit recorded video images over telephone lines, and a number of firms are introducing an array of products that highlight Japan’s dominance in liquid crystal display technology.
Electronic manufacturers here hope such products will help boost a nascent industry recovery. Leading firms recently reported a mixed performance for the fiscal year ended in March, but most have forecast increased profits for their current fiscal years ending March 31, 1995. Semiconductors and liquid crystal displays have been among the strongest sectors.
“In general, the numbers were slightly on the better side than the companies had forecast,” said Chuck Goto, an analyst with S.G. Warburg Securities. “As far as this year goes, there’s a kind of cautious optimism at the moment.”
Whether the optimism is borne out may depend on whether the new products generate excitement among consumers.
Sharp has devised a lively promotion for its new $433 ViewCam TelePort. Unlike conventional videophones, which require the person or object being viewed to be located in front of the camera, Sharp’s new setup allows images already recorded on videotape to be transmitted over a phone line in the form of still pictures.
In suggesting uses for the device, the firm shows a slightly self-deprecating sense of humor. In one print ad, an illustrated chart suggests, under the category of “Bragging-to-your-friends calls,” that the device could be very useful to bird-watchers. A man is shown getting camcorder footage of a bird in a tree, then wearing a self-satisfied grin as he talks to his friend by telephone after transmitting an image of the bird. The friend does not appear particularly impressed.
Other cartoons suggest that the device is also great for “chatting for long hours with friend Yumi about boys in the basketball team,” or, more seriously, to report to the head office on the status of a construction project or maintenance problem.
This same combination of whimsy and some degree of practicality is reflected in a host of other new products.
Capitalizing on widespread Japanese interest in being prepared for earthquakes, Twinbird Industries Ltd. is selling a $317 outdoor sports lantern with spotlight, fluorescent light, emergency siren, AM-FM radio and a 2.2-inch color television.
“Development was triggered by a newspaper article saying that at the time of the (1993) Tokachioki earthquake (which devastated a small island in northern Japan), it would have been good if people had a radio, lantern and television all in one device,” a company official explained. Sales have exceeded expectations. With annual production targeted at 30,000, more than 7,000 lanterns were sold in the first two months.
Tiny but increasingly high-quality liquid crystal displays are “a new product (that) people are finding different ways of using,” Goto noted. Products range from increasingly sophisticated camcorders, with liquid crystal screens instead of viewfinders, to frivolous gift items such as Casio Computer Co.’s $150 “Can-Tele,” a one-inch television mounted in a can designed to sit in a car’s cup holder.
New products aside, the biggest reason for an improved outlook for Japanese electronics firms, Goto said, is that the firms have cut costs severely over the past several years and can make decent profits even if sales remain flat. “If sales go up, that’s gravy,” he said.
Joichi Aoi, chairman of Toshiba Corp., said the worst is over for the industry. “But because of price competition, the recovery of earnings is lagging behind.”
Even in the depths of the recession, companies never stopped putting out a constant stream of what they called “new products,” said Takeshi Sato, a sales manager at a store in Tokyo’s Akihabara district, which has Japan’s greatest concentration of electronics stores.
Unfortunately, the new products were often remarkably similar to the old items, Sato said. “When I ask them what’s different, they say, ‘Well, not much.’ ”
The ViewCam, on which the user looks at a screen with both eyes rather than squinting through a viewfinder with one eye, broke the pattern by bringing a fundamentally new concept to video cameras, thereby helping to enlarge the market, Sato said.
One of the products Sony Corp. is betting on to boost sales is its just-released $1,585 TeleNavi, an automobile navigation system, color television and compact disc player all in one. The navigation system works by receiving Global Positioning System satellite broadcasts to locate the car on a local map programmed into the device.
“When you push the NAV button on the remote control, the navigation system goes into operation,” a TeleNavi brochure explains. “The screen indicates the present location of your car, the direction of travel, the distance to your destination and the direction to take toward your destination. As the car moves, the map screen will automatically scroll to give you an idea where you are driving and in which direction you are going.”
Driving may be made safer by another offbeat device now hitting the market, informally dubbed the “magic wand,” which can be used at night to leave warning signs or other short messages literally hanging in thin air. The electric wand utilizes what is known as the “after-image effect,” the momentary lingering of a bright light’s image on the eye’s retina after the light source is gone.
The wand, made by Yokohama-based Avix Inc. and officially called the Wave Lighter, contains a row of light-emitting tubes, a speed sensor and a changeable programmed memory. Held stationary, it looks like a conventional red baton. But waved through the air at night, its lights flash to literally write a message in the air, such as “Stop” or “Bridge Closed Ahead.”
Initial sales have been aimed at police departments, but the company also expects demand from construction companies, gas stations and theme parks.
For overseas travelers, Sony offers the $315 Pela Pela Data Discman, which produces spoken English translations of 3,037 sentences of the user’s choice, recorded in the device’s memory. Bring a cursor next to the right sentence on the screen, and the Pela Pela can make such inquiries as “How can I make a telephone call to Japan?”
Unfortunately, this technology hasn’t solved a problem endemic to the use of travel phrase books: The instructions offer no advice on understanding the answer.
Electronics Slump
Japan’s major electronics firms are showing signs of recovery from the domestic recession and a global economic slowdown. Although profits have fale significantly, the firms forecast significant increases for the fiscal year ending March 31, 1995. Profits in millions of dollars.
Sony Corp
1995*: $380.5
Sharp Corp
1995*: $361.0
NEC Corp
1995*: $265.7
Matsushita Co
1995*: $571.5
* Projections. Yen-to-dollar conversions based on current exchange rate.
Source: Company reports
