Tokyo University Switches to Mac

[MacRumors]

Asahi.com (Japanese) 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

 

[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]

UT Insider

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.

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

 

[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]

Biggest? No. Best? Yes.

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]

iMac for diskless unix client??

English translation by excite
http://www.excite.co.jp/world/url/b...C%96%F3&wb_lp=JAEN&wb_dis=2&wb_co=excitejapan

 

[irmongoose]

Re: Biggest? No. Best? Yes.

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]

Re: Biggest? No. Best? Yes.

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?