Tokyo University Switches to Mac

[MacRumors]

Asahi.com (Japanese) (http://www.asahi.com/national/update/0925/004.html) is reporting that Tokyo University will be moving many of their Linux PCs to Macs next year.

Approximately 1,150 PCs will be switched to iMacs and most of the servers will also be supplied by Apple. Both the ease of installing software as well as ease of maintainence were cited as reasons for the switch.

Apple Japan has been working to increase their educational marketshare in Japan, and this is their largest educational order to date.

[Squire]

I wish the university I work at would switch to Macs. My office computer really sucks.

Squire

P.S. What's Apple's market share in Japan anyway? It seems like they have quite a presence in the Land of the Rising Sun.

[arn]

Originally posted by Squire
I wish the university I work at would switch to Macs. My office computer really sucks.

Squire

P.S. What's Apple's market share in Japan anyway? It seems like they have quite a presence in the Land of the Rising Sun.

their iPod marketshare is insane over there... I don't think their PC share is as high.

arn

[stefman]

Originally posted by arn
their iPod marketshare is insane over there... I don't think their PC share is as high.

arn

I just came back from Tokyo, there is still a nice presence of Macs around (better than where I live: Singapore).

Cool stuff for Macs at a few shops.

My wife was trying to send an e-mail from a PowerBook at one of the shops in Akihabara and she was going nuts because the keyboard is different.

[irmongoose]

Awesome! Tokyo University is, well, Tokyo University... the biggest University in the whole of Japan, I think.

Macs are definitely more popular over here than in the US, but I'm surprised it isn't more popular. The Mac is almost perfect for the Japanese...

The reason why the iPod is the most popular MP3 player here is because most people use MD players. I dunno why, but they just do.

The Japanese are usually more attracted to their phones than computers.



irmongoose

[Trimix]

Congratulations -
Did I read that correctly ? Did it really say i-macs ?
I like that :D

[MoparShaha]

I think the biggest thing Apple has got going is the Japanese support in the OS. OS X in Japanese is a revalation compared to Japanese Windows. So much clearer, easier to read. This alone should make Macs very popular to non-Roman alphabet countries.

[MOM]

OK who checked the negative box on this story?? Expecting them to add a supercomputer to boot? Jeez.

[Megaquad]

Its funny there are always few negative votes for good stories. It's probably some angry PC users.

[Squire]

Originally posted by arn
their iPod marketshare is insane over there... I don't think their PC share is as high.

arn

I thought you meant here, in Korea, at first. Actually, I only know of a couple people who own Macs over here and they're all foreigners. The reason, I assume, is that it is so unbelievably cheap to get a computer (PC) built here.

Squire

[Highlight]

University of Tokyo uses NCs as terminals for students. Their OSs are (mainly): UNIX, WindowsNT4. Especially Windows runs really slowly.

[Analog Kid]

Originally posted by stefman
My wife was trying to send an e-mail from a PowerBook at one of the shops in Akihabara and she was going nuts because the keyboard is different.

:D The little tiny space bar? Be careful-- miss the mark with your thumb and you're typing Kanji! :D

[Inunyan]

This will have a big impact in Japan. This is a country of highly centralized bureaucracy, and Tokyo University is virtually the sole supplier for Tokyo Madarins. You won't be able to imagine the prestage associated to Tokyo U over here. Something like All Ivy league schools collectively going to Mac.. Story of Virginia Tech G5 Grid has been also well publicised, and I won't be surprized if we hear more strories of mass Mac-ization in Japanese Academia.

And, as is said, iPod fad is all at rage in Tokyo.

The only thing I don't understand is why we are left without iTunes Music Store. Is it that Xoxy (censured) is working hard preventimg it behind the scene??

[Ed at Bitcafe]

Originally posted by Squire

P.S. What's Apple's market share in Japan anyway? It seems like they have quite a presence in the Land of the Rising Sun. [/B]

Good question. Reliable data for the whole market isn't easy to come by, but the last IDC estimate I heard was something around 4%, IIRC. Nothing to get excited over.

However, that's for all markets including enterprise, and we all know that Apple doesn't sell a lot to big business.

At retail (= in the electronics and computer chains), it does much better in Japan. In recent weeks, Apple's been grabbing around 7 to 9% of the retail market for PCs. Nothing close to the temporary spikes that once greeted major product launches (the original iMac was eating up over 30% of the Japanese retail PC market for a while), but I expect it to climb over 10% soon. How far will it go from there? We'll see...

More info along this vein at www.bitcafe.com for the interested.

[mac15]

Awesome, my School got a room full of emacs not so long ago. They are so damn awesome

[mad01357]

Originally posted by irmongoose
Awesome! Tokyo University is, well, Tokyo University... the biggest University in the whole of Japan, I think.
irmongoose

Tokyo University is the most prestegious university in Japan. It is the Japanese equivalent of Harvard. It is pretty big, but not the biggest. They are so influential in Japan that this must be a really big news for Apple Japan.

In my impression, Tokyo University has been on the conservative side with repect to everything. So I am a bit surprised this time. But, anyway, they made the right decision.

[wadaakiko]

English translation by excite
http://www.excite.co.jp/world/url/body/?wb_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp%2Fannounce%2F2003%2F09%2F24_nextsystem.html&submit=%83E%83F%83u%83y%81%5B%83W%96%7C%96%F3&wb_lp=JAEN&wb_dis=2&wb_co=excitejapan

[irmongoose]

Originally posted by mad01357
Tokyo University is the most prestegious university in Japan. It is the Japanese equivalent of Harvard. It is pretty big, but not the biggest. They are so influential in Japan that this must be a really big news for Apple Japan.

In my impression, Tokyo University has been on the conservative side with repect to everything. So I am a bit surprised this time. But, anyway, they made the right decision.

Yeah, I know how influential To-dai is in Japan (I've lived here my whole life). It's very good news for Apple.



irmongoose

[Squire]

Ed at Bitcafe--

Thanks for the informative response.

Imagine the spinoffs of exposing that many university students to Macs. Hmmm. I'm sure the average Tokyo U student could afford a Mac or two, eh?

Squire

[stingerman]

No doubt this is related to the Asian markets intentional move away from Windows. The recent unending cycle of Windows viruses and worms was probably the penultimate. University level educators probably chimed in from a pure technology point of view, free from the marketing smoke screen and pressure.

[Sonofhaig]

Originally posted by Megaquad
Its funny there are always few negative votes for good stories. It's probably some angry PC users.

Right? I can never understand why anybody would rate a positive story with a negative...... "angry PC users" is the correct answer.

[wilco]

Originally posted by Sonofhaig
Right? I can never understand why anybody would rate a positive story with a negative...... "angry PC users" is the correct answer.

Wrong. I don't own a PC, and I'm not angry.

I always hit "negative", just to get a rise out of the more anal people on the board.

[rjwill246]

Originally posted by wilco
Wrong. I don't own a PC, and I'm not angry.

I always hit "negative", just to get a rise out of the more anal people on the board.

That's about as (b)anal as it gets, mate!

[lmalave]

Originally posted by mad01357
Tokyo University is the most prestegious university in Japan. It is the Japanese equivalent of Harvard. It is pretty big, but not the biggest. They are so influential in Japan that this must be a really big news for Apple Japan.

In my impression, Tokyo University has been on the conservative side with repect to everything. So I am a bit surprised this time. But, anyway, they made the right decision.

Well, keep in mind they're replacing Linux machines, not Windows machines. Makes total sense - OS X is easier to maintain, and labor costs are pretty high in Japan, which means OS X has lower TCO than Linux, even though the Intel hardware might be a little bit cheaper.

I studied undergrad at MIT which has all Unix workstations (mostly Sun machines with a few IBMs and HPs), and over the past few years I'd been wondering if it had started to integrate Linux machines. Now with OS X, I've been wondering if they've integrated Macs at all. Thing is though, MIT has a whole X11-based system that's been in place for, like, 15 years (and which they invented, by the way), so they'd have to configure each Mac to start up the whole X11-based environment. Which is pretty easy, I guess.

At NYU, where I'm studying now, I noticed FP iMacs in the library, but I haven't seen them anywhere else.

[Thanatoast]

Kinda on topic.

OSX has built in support for Japanese, evidenced by the fact that I can visit Japanese websites and not see gibberish. Can it also type in Japanese (hiragana or katakana) straight out of the box?

[irmongoose]

Originally posted by Thanatoast
Kinda on topic.

OSX has built in support for Japanese, evidenced by the fact that I can visit Japanese websites and not see gibberish. Can it also type in Japanese (hiragana or katakana) straight out of the box?

Yep. In fact, you can type in all the OS X supported languages out of the box by just going to the 'International' pane in System Preferences.



irmongoose

[DJ.Guri]

Well, keep in mind they're replacing Linux machines, not Windows machines.

It's true that they're going to replace Linux, but there has been at most 200 windows machines in Tokyo-U, according to the article. So virtually about 80% PCs there will be "switched" to Mac, which I think might be the biggest educational order ever for Apple Japan.

Though in Japan almost 100% PCs for commercial use are windows, some investigators say the shares of Mac for personal-use may give rise to some 10%. I'm Japanese and university student (not Tokyo-U), and I'm really surprised a lot of tutors are using iBook or PBG4. They say Macs are easy to handle, and I assume it's convenient for tutors or staffs in the university to change computers to Macs for educational use.

As many persons here says, Tokyo-U in Japan is equal to Harvard-U in U.S. or more, and they really have great influence on Japanese society(regardless it's good or not...), it becomes one of the most surprising news in Japan, I suppose. I come to be interested in the speculation of my university.http://forums.macrumors.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[bousozoku]

I'd hope that Waseda Univ. would also make a large purchase of Macs. Since they're also well known for technological advances, this would prompt even smaller schools to contemplate the switch.

[alset]

Wow, replacing Windows is an accomplishment. Replacing the seemingly invincible Linux is a HUGE success.

Very impressed.

Dan

[orb]

Originally posted by Thanatoast
Kinda on topic.

OSX has built in support for Japanese, evidenced by the fact that I can visit Japanese websites and not see gibberish. Can it also type in Japanese (hiragana or katakana) straight out of the box?

Yes. It can do a ton of languages out of the box. Go to the "international" section of your system preferences. Under the "input menu" tab, just click on which languages you want to be able to type. If you have more than one, you can switch by using ctrl-space or by the the little input language button on the menu bar.

For a real kick, go to the "language" section and pick another language. Try going down to japanese or chinese for real fun. Now, exit an apple app like mail and relaunch it. It's all in the other language. Wow.

Seriously, wow. My wife is from Taiwan and she uses her mac in chinese mode. I know enough chinese to get around, but when she has a problem, I just switch languages and play around a bit then switch back. She used to use windows, but internationalization support is horrid there. She bought a laptop once and we had to get a friend in Taiwan to send a chinese version of the OS, which didn't work right because it didn't have all the right drivers for the laptop. UGLY.

It's still better than Linux. I love Linux as much as (if not more) than I love OS X. But, trying to work in other languages is hard. Displaying web pages is easy, but actually doing real work in another language is next to impossible. It's one rare case where Window's actually outshines linux.

But Apple wins, hands down.

[Rocketman]

Originally posted by Thanatoast
Kinda on topic.

OSX has built in support for Japanese, evidenced by the fact that I can visit Japanese websites and not see gibberish. Can it also type in Japanese (hiragana or katakana) straight out of the box?

Yes but you need a Japanese keyboard to take advantage of all the features. I assume being Apple it is designed for a 1 button mouse.

Rocketman

[bousozoku]

Originally posted by Rocketman
Yes but you need a Japanese keyboard to take advantage of all the features. I assume being Apple it is designed for a 1 button mouse.

Rocketman

Other than being able to key kana directly, what features does a Japanese keyboard add?

I've been using U.S. English keyboards to key Japanese since the mid 1990s and learned on such back in the mid 1980s in Japan. Kotoeri is slower than direct kana input, but you can do it on any keyboard.

[neier]

Originally posted by bousozoku
Other than being able to key kana directly, what features does a Japanese keyboard add?

Well, besides the "correct" placement of the control key, it also hones one's ability to search for " and @. ;)


I've been using U.S. English keyboards to key Japanese since the mid 1990s and learned on such back in the mid 1980s in Japan. Kotoeri is slower than direct kana input, but you can do it on any keyboard.

Actually, as far as I can tell, most of the younger generation (including everyone at work with me), prefers to type in romaji anyway, so the benefits of a Japanese keyboard are nullified. Apple even offers non-Japanese keyboards as BTO options on the powerbooks (or did, the last time I checked).

[misr12]

I will wait until the iMac's go to the G5 processor. I am not impressed with the current iMac lineup. I'll stay put with my G4Cube until then..... Boy, when the iMac goes G5 regardless of processor speed, I'll be in line with credit card in hand.

Patiently waiting......

[bousozoku]

Originally posted by neier
Well, besides the "correct" placement of the control key, it also hones one's ability to search for " and @. ;)



Actually, as far as I can tell, most of the younger generation (including everyone at work with me), prefers to type in romaji anyway, so the benefits of a Japanese keyboard are nullified. Apple even offers non-Japanese keyboards as BTO options on the powerbooks (or did, the last time I checked).

Thank you! I feel much younger now. :)

As far as the placement of the Control key, correct is in the eye of the beholder. It's like contemplating the placement of the Graph key. I still think that there should be a Shift Lock key, but there are Caps Lock keys on most of the keyboards. ;)

[apelet]

I used to go to the University of Tokyo (NOT Tokyo University), and I would have loved for them to have gone all Mac when I was there. I've used the computers they are replacing and they were A PAIN IN THE ASS.

I don't know the details but, it was some sort of unix (or linux, from whats written here), and you could open up a window that led to Windows NT. Really slow, and REALLY UNRELIABLE. I've lost more than a few hours of work when the stupid thing would just decide to close my Word window at random.

Students use the same terminals for normal word processing and browsing, and they teach programming in a unix environment so i don't think dumping what they have now to go to Windows was ever an option. OS X seems to have everything they need.

In Japan in general, Macs are pretty common. Walking around Tokyo, I saw about 3 macs for every 5 wintel notebooks. If you go to the Virgin Records in Shinjuku, the internet cafe on the 4th (maybe 3rd) floor is full of ibooks and imacs. Japanese people are generally into what looks cool, so Macs are pretty popular. (I think Sony notebooks are the most popular though)

[bousozoku]

Originally posted by apelet
I used to go to the University of Tokyo (NOT Tokyo University), and I would have loved for them to have gone all Mac when I was there.
...


I'm curious as to why you're making a distinction of the name of the school.

It's tokyo daigaku, not tokyo no daigaku, as you said.

[Thanatoast]

w00t! definitely über-cool! thank you very much, y'all!

[Squire]

Originally posted by bousozoku
I'm curious as to why you're making a distinction of the name of the school.

It's tokyo daigaku, not tokyo no daigaku, as you said.

I think "apelet" is saying that the official English name of the university in question is "The University of Tokyo" as opposed to "Tokyo University." However trivial this is, I believe he/she is actually correct. I found a website for "The University of Tokyo" (http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/eng/index.html) but I could not seem to locate a site for "Tokyo University."

Cool story nonetheless.

Squire

[bousozoku]

Originally posted by Squire
I think "apelet" is saying that the official English name of the university in question is "The University of Tokyo" as opposed to "Tokyo University." However trivial this is, I believe he/she is actually correct. I found a website for "The University of Tokyo" (http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/eng/index.html) but I could not seem to locate a site for "Tokyo University."

Cool story nonetheless.

Squire

Interesting.

I remember that no one had said "The University of Tokyo" but then, dug deeper, and I don't think anyone ever spoke it in English anyway.

Sorry, apelet.

[mproud]

Tokyo University? Is that the same as Waseda? I know some people studying there...

I, however, am studying at a slightly smaller school (Kansai Gaidai) in Hirakata, between Osaka and Kyoto. Unfortunately, their man student lab and language labs consist entirely of ugly old PCs, mainly Fujitsu computers without headphones in the front.

But today I did use a QuickSilver (about the only one they have here!) which was a pleasant experience. Pre-Jaguar though :-\

No surprise about the easy conversation from Linux to Mac. People just need to see the Windows to Linux/Mac connection. You'd think with all these viruses people would be thinking about it just a little bit more...

[bousozoku]

Originally posted by mproud
Tokyo University? Is that the same as Waseda? I know some people studying there...

I, however, am studying at a slightly smaller school (Kansai Gaidai) in Hirakata, between Osaka and Kyoto. Unfortunately, their man student lab and language labs consist entirely of ugly old PCs, mainly Fujitsu computers without headphones in the front.

But today I did use a QuickSilver (about the only one they have here!) which was a pleasant experience. Pre-Jaguar though :-\

No surprise about the easy conversation from Linux to Mac. People just need to see the Windows to Linux/Mac connection. You'd think with all these viruses people would be thinking about it just a little bit more...

Tokyo Daigaku and Waseda Daigaku are definltely separate entities. I've known about 50 students from Waseda Daigaku and even they are impressed with students who make it into Tokyo Daigaku.

Waseda has made a lot of interesting scientific breakthroughs such as the robot that could play music keyboards by reading sheet music.

[apelet]

Originally posted by bousozoku
Interesting.

I remember that no one had said "The University of Tokyo" but then, dug deeper, and I don't think anyone ever spoke it in English anyway.

Sorry, apelet.

No problem. I hate nitpicking, but this is a really common thing. Even Japanese people say "Tokyo University".

[danielmaui]

It changes to Tokyo University sharing PC and Mac, from March of next year

The University of Tokyo, with the shared personal computer which all the student approximately 30000 people and the school personnel of the graduate school and department use inside the university, desktop type "iMac of the apple computer (eye Mac)" introduces from March of next year. The present shared machine, being gratuitous, the basic software which is open (OS) is the simple personal computer which designates "Linux" as the base, but the fact that update period of 5 years is entered making the most of it changes to Mac. Presently you can use also OS most major Microsoft Windows in
principle, but after the March of the next year, Microsoft Windows becomes unable to use at large portion of the shared personal computer excluding the high functional personal computer of part.

Tokyo University, Komaba 1st and puts in place the shared personal computer approximately 1400 units, on the campus of 3 places of Hongo and Kashiwa the information interchange network system (LAN) with ties.

The NEC affiliated company on the 24th, bids successfully with general competitive bidding of shared personal computer system payment, approximately 1150 units become Mac, the server of the basic computer which controls the system large portion becomes the apple make.

As for the remaining approximately 200 units, it becomes the personal computer which can use also the high functional personal computer and Microsoft Windows data processing 3 dimensions and the like.

As for the students with the ID password, you can use the shared personal computer freely. At the Komaba 1st campus, using the shared personal computer, 1st grade everyone (approximately 3500 people) it does the class of the required course "information processing" which used the computer with the information education ridge. It is used in report creation and mail perusal other than teaching.

At Tokyo University "there is an advantage introduction of the various software of being easy to do in comparison with Microsoft Windows, trouble occurring, being easy to correct by your,", that it has explained concerning the reason which introduces Mac.

The Japanese corporate body of the apple computer advanced the market development for the education system which has the result in the United States, but "incoming order of the scale which exceeds personal computer 1000 has done for the first time".

(09/25 05:57)

[bousozoku]

Originally posted by apelet
No problem. I hate nitpicking, but this is a really common thing. Even Japanese people say "Tokyo University".

Well, as I was writing, the English name does not fit. Even more, in Japanese, almost no one says tokyo daigaku, they just say todai. ;)

[Hiroto]

I found this link (Japanese) with some details:

http://www.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/announce/2003/09/24_nextsystem.html

Quick summary:

1149 Standard Terminals:

o 15 Inch iMac (Diskless)
o PowerMac G4 1Ghz
o 512M memory
o Mac OS X (Likely to be 10.3)
o Netboot from Xserve (1 Xserver per 20+ terminals)
o DVD-ROM, CD-RW
o Happy Hacking Keyboard Lite 2 (JIS)
o 3 button optical mouse

[bousozoku]

Oooo, I want a Happy Hacking Keyboard too. ;)

I wouldn't mind having a JIS keyboard again though.

It just keeps getting better. :)

[MrMacMan]

Feel the burn of a Slashdotting!

Article here (http://apple.slashdot.org/apple/03/09/27/1732259.shtml?tid=107&tid=187)


;)

[riwanami]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Rocketman
[B]Yes but you need a Japanese keyboard to take advantage of all the features. I assume being Apple it is designed for a 1 button mouse.


Actually, you don't need a Japanese keyboard to type Japanese in Mac OX or even Windows 2000/XP. Most Mac/PC users in Japan now type in "Roma-ji" or in phonetics, so we simply use the English keys. The difference between the Japanese and US keyboards are changes in the placement of certain characters (such as @ " ') and the inclusion of conversion keys (on some PCs, but not on the new Macs) and keys to switch between Japanese photetics, direct Japanese input, and direct English input. Even without the switch keys, you can simply use the mouse and change from Japanese to English on the top of the screen on Macs.

In any case, it helps to know Japanese :)