The Players

Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa demurs, "We are not good In areas other than entertainment' But he admits that 'when we talk about how we can appeal to the boys, especially between 8 years old and 15, probably we are the best' Some understatement-Nintendo expects to capture $4.8 billion of the projected $5.9 billion American video-we market In 1992. In Japan, Nintendo has already tapped the computer power within the game box: consumers use the consoles to bank at home, trade stocks and even to bet on lotteries and horse races. Nintendo has made deals with consumer-electronics companies Sony and Philips to come up with game grew, and announced it will bring out a $200 CD-ROM drive for games by the year-end-an incredible one third of the current price of the disc players.

SONY

Akio Morita's Sony Corp. appears to be everywhere at once. Sony helps Apple manufacture many of Its computers and components, and makes a pocket-size pen computer In Japan, the Palmtop, that Is rumored to be undergoing an eventual Apple software makeover for the U.S. market Sony Is also said to be an Investor In General Magic, the Apple spinoff off. But Sony also supported Microsoft's software standards In its now CD-ROM player.

Not that it's any surprise. Like its archrival in Japan, Matsushita, Sony is covering all the bases in the emerging market It is well positioned for the coming fight. Sony and consumer-electronics giants Sharp and Casio are already adept at packing computer power into handhold electronic organizers. Sony also has market savvy that American computer companies lack-the Japanese giant knows the ins and outs of the brutal consumer--electronics business and has learned to thrive an the razor-thin profit margins. Lot the American computer companies brag about the strength of their technology, says Ron Sommer, the president and CEO of Sony Corp. of America 'Our strength Is not only technology, but the marketing power to develop totally now markets where the consumer fools comfortable.'

Despite its manufacturing and retail wizardry, Sony doesn't do everything right Its much-ballyhooed consumer CD-ROM reader, the DataDiscman, Is awkwardly designed; Richard Shaffer, editor of the Computer Letter, applauds Its under-$600 price tag but deems It "almost unusable.' The giant could stumble. But it would be foolish to underestimate the company that created the Walkman.

BILL POWELL

© 1992