Office workstations head to marketplace via new partnership.Office workstations Office Workstations Ltd was bought in 1989 by Matsushita Electric Industrial (MEI) of Japan and became Panasonic OWL. Since then they have been developing software to support next generation consumer electronics. head to marketplace via new partnership El Segundo-based Merisel, formerly called Softsel/Microamerica, will likely become the first distributor in the nation of computer workstations next month. To date the big four workstation manufacturers -- Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA[3]) is an American vendor of computers, computer components, computer software, and information-technology services, founded on 24 February 1982. , Digital Equipment Corp., IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) and Hewlett Packard/Apollo -- have sold their products directly to users for prices generally between $20,000 to $50,000 each. But last month Digital Equipment chose $630 million (revenues) Merisel to distribute a line of Digital's workstation products, becoming the first manufacturer to enlist en·list v. en·list·ed, en·list·ing, en·lists v.tr. 1. To engage (persons or a person) for service in the armed forces. 2. To engage the support or cooperation of. v. the help of a middleman mid·dle·man n. 1. A trader who buys from producers and sells to retailers or consumers. 2. An intermediary; a go-between. . Merisel President and Chief Executive Michael D. Pickett said manufacturers are feeling squeezed by the market. "The prices have come down to about $5,000 to $10,000 each, and the manufacturers margins are not so high." Distributors and their retailers can generate higher margins because they can sell accompanying computer equipment, explained Pickett. |
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