Wintelism Vs. Japan

Japanese industry is perhaps the most striking economic success story in the latter half of the twentieth century. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the field of computer hardware, such as memory chips and flat panel displays. However, they have not been competitive in the key areas of computer architecture and software. In particular, Japan has lagged behind the United States in microprocessors and operating systems, which mainly define the personal computer (PC) architectural standard. In fact, two American companies, Microsoft and Intel, have all but monopolized these fields and have established a de facto global PC standard. In this sense, the dominance by Microsoft and Intel and subsequent transformation of computer industrial structure are called Wintelism, a term derived from the Windows of Microsoft's famous operating system and Intel, the world's leading producer of PC microprocessors. In a narrow sense, Wintelism refers to the structural dominance of Microsoft and Intel in the PC architectural standards. In a broader sense, Wintelism signifies the rise of a new industrial paradigm in the global computer industry, which is potentially comparable to the British industrial model in the nineteenth century, Fordism in the early-mid twentieth century, and Japan's so-called Toyota production system of more recent vintage. This research does not explore only why Japan has failed to meet the unique technological challenge presented by leading American companies in the PC standards competition, but also why it has failed to adjust to the rise of Wintelism--in a broader sense discussed above--in the global computer industry.