Fujitsu-Siemens (Industry Analysis)

Fujitsu-Siemens (FS) is a joint venture company formed in 1999 between Fujitsu Limited of Japan and Siemens AG of Germany. They sell computing and business products, including desktops, laptops, handheld computers, workstations, servers, and mainframe devices. The company has about 10,700 employees, and is based in Maarssen, Netherlands. Their main markets are the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) markets.
FS operates within the computer industry. The computer industry is a relatively new industry, as computers were first created around 1940, and the advent of the personal computer did not occur until the 1970s. The industry includes not only making computers and technological devices, but it also includes making the software, creating network infrastructure, and providing information technology services. FS focuses on making computers in various forms, as mentioned above. Thus, their major competitors are Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Acer, and Lenovo. The company is worried most about HP, which has been gaining significant ground in the European market, which is one of the main markets of FS.
The quintessential challenge for a company within this industry is to decide whether to be a high volume, low value seller or a low volume, high value seller. Currently FS is in the middle, and is trying to become a high value player within the industry. This is an opportunity that FS has met with open arms, and they are fully embracing the move to be a value player. An additional challenge, which FS initially faced, is the fact that so many companies are well established within the computer industry. Therefore, it is hard to simply start your own company and compete with the Dells and HPs out there. Although FS is a new company, they have the support of Fujitsu and Siemens, which helped them get over this challenge.
This industry is of large interest to both business and engineering. The world is becoming a smaller place due to computers and the internet. Business is done on computers now, and highly complex engineering models can be made easily on computers using something like a computer aided drawing (CAD). Therefore, the industry needs to stay competitive in order to keep prices low and to produce the best product available. Otherwise, both the business and engineering worlds will slow to a halt.