14 DAY TRIAL // It looks like the PC market can sometimes be too hard to handle, especially when you have to compete with big names such as HP, Dell or Acer. Such could also be the case with Fujitsu Siemens Computers that, according to a recent Reuters piece, may soon become history and cease to exist.
The news hasn't been yet confirmed by any of the two companies in the German-Japanese joint venture, but sources cited by Reuters indicate that Siemens is about to separate from partner Fujitsu. What will happen to the joint venture company if this is really true is yet uncertain, but it is very likely that the most recently announced Fujitsu Siemens laptops will become the last of the company's products. This will also mean that other computer makers will have a chance at acquiring the biggest PC supplier in the European Union, an opportunity that some will most probably know how to take advantage of.
According to the Reuters piece, executives of Fujitsu and Siemens are currently in talks regarding the future of FSC in Japan. If neither of the two companies expresses a desire to pull out of the business, then FSC will continue to exist at least until 2009, when the legal agreement between the two expires.
"If Siemens were to decide to pull out, Fujitsu would most likely be unwilling to buy Siemens's stake, given the business climate. Fujitsu's brand by itself is not enough to carry in Europe, where the popularity of low cost models has meant tough price competition," said an inside source, as cited by Reuters.
This doesn't come as great news for FSC, especially given that it's been said it will come out with a couple of new products, one of which will place the company as a competitor to ASUS' Eee PC in an already emerging market. Also, Fujitsu Siemens has already gone public with its latest series of notebooks, which are based on the new Intel mobile technology, the Centrino 2.