NEC plans to raise PC prices
The computer maker says it plans to increase the suggested retail price on its PCs because of rising prices of parts such as DRAM chips and liquid-crystal displays.
"We are in a situation where we have to jack up PC prices from the next new product line," said a representative for NEC, Japan's biggest supplier of personal computers, declining to say how much the increase would be.
NEC's comment came after U.S. firm Apple Computer last week increased the price on its low-end iMac desktop computer by $100, complaining that prices of components were going through the roof.
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported Sunday that NEC's peers Fujitsu and IBM Japan, a unit of IBM, also plan to raise their PC prices by 10 percent to 20 percent starting in April.
"Although parts prices have been up, we have not decided whether we should raise our PC prices," a Fujitsu representative said.
No one at IBM Japan was available for comment.
The newspaper said the weak yen had pushed up procurement costs in Taiwan, where NEC and Fujitsu manufacture and assemble their products.
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