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Re: The story of MSX computers in 1984

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On 2014-03-11 15:36:51 +0000, RS Wood said:

> From the 'If it's got an X in the name it's cool' department:
> 
> http://www.dvorak.org/blog/whatever-happened-to-msx-computers/
> 
> Not too many people will recall the short-lived era of the “MSX”
> initiative which was slated to pretty much take over the non-existent
> middle world where consumer electronics met personal computers. It was
> always believed, back then, that this is where the sweet spot of
> profits would emerge. What emerged was instead laughable MSX. It was
> one of Microsoft’s greatest flops.
> 
> ... [major snippage] ...
> 
> In February of 1990 one of the last hold outs for MSX, Sony
> Corporation, gave up on supporting MSX and moved into production of AX
> computers (another dead-end) and mini-notebook machines. Only Panasonic
> continued to make an MSX-II Turbo machine. Sanyo also stayed in the
> consortium to no avail
> 
> The story of MSX – if it is ever remembered — might eventually be a
> Harvard Business School case study. The entire episode proves that
> popularizing a new standard is not a trivial pursuit."

While MSX machines were very rare stateside, they were probably the 
most popular platform in Japan for about a decade.  The problem that 
MSX faced here in the USA was that Microsoft was pushing DOS for 
everything, and even finding an advertisement for MSX in the USA is 
difficult.

Back then there were several competing computer platforms in Japan 
which were almost never seen stateside - MSX, Sharp's X1 and later 
X68000, the Fujitsu Fm series, and the NEC PC-8801s.  They are sought 
by collectors these days, not only for the rarity of the hardware but 
also because these platforms had many many games.

I have to say, as usual, that Dvorak missed the point.  MSX failed in 
the USA and Canada, but it made a lot of companies a lot of money in 
Japan and Brazil.

He can't be blamed entirely for his journalistic error, though.  Most 
people are not aware of the variety of Japanese home computers because 
they never had a chance to see them.

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The story of MSX computers in 1984 RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-03-11 15:36 +0000
  Re: The story of MSX computers in 1984 Oregonian Haruspex <bob_davis_retired@yahoo.com> - 2014-03-11 13:37 -0700
    Re: The story of MSX computers in 1984 Koen Lefever <koen.lefever@gmail.com> - 2014-03-11 22:56 +0000
      Re: The story of MSX computers in 1984 Oregonian Haruspex <bob_davis_retired@yahoo.com> - 2014-03-11 16:56 -0700
        Re: The story of MSX computers in 1984 Roger Blake <rogblake@iname.invalid> - 2014-03-12 02:33 +0000
          Re: The story of MSX computers in 1984 Oregonian Haruspex <bob_davis_retired@yahoo.com> - 2014-03-11 23:05 -0700

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