■ Computers
Chinese PC sales up 10%
Sales of computers in China reached 17 million in the first nine months of the year on the back of government policies to promote high technology, state media reported yesterday. For the full year this year, computer sales are expected to at least double compared with last year, when sales were 9.2 million, Xinhua news agency reported. As a result, urban Chinese will soon have more computers than TV sets, the agency said, quoting Wang Dianfu, deputy director of the China Council of Electronics Business. Wang credited the government with the growth, citing a nine-year-old policy to establish an "information expressway" in China. The agency said that in the first six months of the year, 5.1 million personal computers were sold, an increase of 10 percent from the same period in last year.
■ Electronics
Firms to stop making CRTs
Japan's Matsushita and Toshiba will stop making picture tubes for televisions domestically next year, ending the half-a-century history of cathode-ray tube production here, a report said yesterday. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd and Toshiba Corp will terminate their cathode-ray tubes (CRTs) production at Japanese factories by the end of next September, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said. As Sony Corp has already decided to withdraw from domestic picture tube production next year, the Matsushita and Toshiba move signals the end of the mass production of CRTs in Japan, the economic daily said. Shifting its CRT production to overseas bases, Matsushita Electric, better known for its National and Panasonic brands, will instead focus its domestic output on high-definition plasma panels, it said.
■ Restaurants
`McJob' angers McDonald's
McDonald's says it deserves a break from the unflattering way the latest Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary depicts its job opportunities. Among some 10,000 new additions to an updated version released in June was the term "McJob," defined as "low paying and dead-end work." In an open letter to Merriam-Webster, McDonald's CEO Jim Cantalupo said the term is "an inaccurate description of restaurant employment" and "a slap in the face to the 12 million men and women" who work in the restaurant industry. McDonald's, the world's largest restaurant chain, has more than 30,000 restaurants and more than 400,000 employees. Walt Riker, a spokesman for McDonald's, said the Oak Brook, Illinois-based fast-food giant also is concerned that "McJob" closely resembles McJOBS, the company's training program for mentally and physically challenged people.
■ Spending
Japanese firms' profits up
Combined recurring profits at listed Japanese companies grew 25 percent in the first half to September, fueled more by rising demand than by cost savings from restructuring, a report said yesterday. As of Friday, 290 listed firms had reported consolidated recurring profit of ¥4.56 trillion (US$41.8 billion) in the first half, up 25.1 percent from a year earlier, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun business daily said in a survey. The driving forces for the growth are booming markets of digital gear such as liquid crystal display (LCD) televisions and digital cameras as well as strong sales of cars in North America and steel products in Asia, it said. The companies' net profit rose 27.8 percent in the six months on 1.3 percent sales growth, it said.
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