Librex Computer Systems: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:01, 11 October 2022

Revision as of 17:03, 11 October 2022

Line 28:

Although Librex's laptops continued to receive high marks for their build quality, the company saw pressure in the crowded notebook market by the beginning of 1992.<ref name=Eisenstodt1992>{{cite web | last=Eisenstodt | first=Gale | date=January 24, 1992 | url=https://www.afr.com/companies/nippon-steel-learns-from-diversification-19920124-kaoas | title=Nippon Steel Learns from Diversification | work=Australian Financial Review | agency=Forbes Reprint | publisher=Nine Entertainment | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20221011033237/https://www.afr.com/companies/nippon-steel-learns-from-diversification-19920124-kaoas | archivedate=October 11, 2022}}</ref> Amid falling profit margins, Nippon Steel announced in August 1992 that they would dissolve both Librex in the U.S. and Nippon Steel Computer PLC in the United Kingdom,<ref name=New_York_Times1992 /> in what was called "the first visible fallout from the price war" hitting the portable computer market in the early 1990s, according to [[International Data Corporation|IDC]].<ref>{{cite journal | last=Lee | first=Yvonne | date=September 7, 1992 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DVEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA26 | title=Librex shuts down its U.S. operations | journal=InfoWorld | publisher=IDG Publications | volume=14 | issue=36 | page=26 | via=Google Books}}</ref> Librex pulled their products from the market that month but continued to support customers until March 1993 while they discussed selling their capital and intellectual property to potential buyers.<ref name=Wall_Street_Journal1992>{{cite journal | last=Staff writer | date=August 31, 1992 | url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/398376981/ | title=Nippon Steel to Close Computer Subsidiaries In U.S. and Britain | journal=The Wall Street Journal | publisher=Dow Jones & Company | page=1 | via=ProQuest}}</ref> Librex partially reversed its stance, releasing the R386SL notebook—its last product—in late 1992 and slightly postponing its dissolution date to April 1993.<ref name=Howard1992b />{{rp|240}} Polywell Computers of San Francisco ultimately bought the tooling for Librex's notebook computers, selling them in the United States in 1993.<ref name=Howard1993>{{cite journal | last=Howard | first=Bill | date=August 1993 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H53CIZnYLZwC&pg=PA224 | title=The Portable Puzzle | journal=PC Magazine | publisher=Ziff-Davis | volume=12 | issue=14 | pages=126–269 | via=Google Books}}</ref>

In its three years of existence, Librex managed to attain the rank of the 47th largest personal computer maker in the United States by theAugust time it ceased operations1992.<ref name=New_York_Times1992 /> Dan Crane, vice president of sales and marketing for Librex, reflected in 1996 that Nippon Steel's remote management imposed handicaps in selling Librex's products at attractive prices: "Nippon Steel simply didn't have the cultural infrastructure needed to compete here ... [having a] rather cool, ultraslim notebook for 1992 with quantities and prices that were [arbitrarily] set in 1991", in part due to management honoring the initial quotes it gave to retail and direct sales partners, refusing to ask for adjustments after the fact.<ref name=Doyle1996>{{cite journal | last=Doyle | first=T. C. | date=July 1, 1996 | url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/194167590/ | title=Pacific Power | journal=VARbusiness | publisher=CMP Publications | page=68 | via=ProQuest}}</ref>

==References==