Hitachi to Get Out of Home PC Business

Although never a big name in the North American market, Hitachi has announced it will withdraw from the home PC business due to low profits and stiff competition.

Japanese electronics maker Hitachi has never been a big name in the North American PC market, but for years the company has been manufacturing consumer PCs sold in Japan and other parts of Asia, and Hitchi was one of the companies which created the Japanese PC market in the 1970s and 1980s. But not anymore: the company has officially announced it is ceasing development of its Prius-brand personal computers and is getting out of the home PC market entirely, due to sluggish sales and low profits.

The company says it will keep manufacturing business-use PCs, and has opened a new supply channel from Hewlett-Packard. Hitachi also says it plans to move ahead with an all-in-one consumer device which combines the functionality of a PC, Internet appliance, and television. The future of Hitachi’s PC manufacturing plants in Toyokawa and Aichi remains unclear.

According to the MultiMedia (MM) Research Institute Hitachi represented only a 4.5 percent share of the Japanese PC market, shipping about 580,000 units during the fiscal year ending in March 2007.