is a
Japanese company specializing in
semiconductors,
computers (
supercomputers,
personal computers,
servers),
telecommunications, and
services, and is headquartered in
Tokyo.
Fujitsu employs around 158,000 people and has 500
subsidiary companies. Internationally, Fujitsu considers
IBM to be its main competitor. Its historical domestic rival is
NEC.
The slogan ''"The possibilities are infinite"'' can be found below the company's logo on major advertising and ties up with the small logo above the letters J and I of the word Fujitsu. This smaller logo, similar to a sideways figure of eight represents the symbol for infinity.
History
The company was established in
1935 under the name Fuji Tsūshinki Seizō (富士通信機製造, Fuji Telecommunications Equipment Manufacturing), a spinoff of the
Fuji Electric Company, this in turn being a joint venture between the
Furukawa Electric Company and German conglomerate
Siemens founded in
1923. Despite its connections to the Furukawa
zaibatsu, Fujitsu escaped the Allied
occupation of Japan mostly unscathed.
In
1954 Fujitsu manufactured Japan's first computer, the
FACOM 100, and in
1961 the transistorized
FACOM 222. In
1967, the company's name was officially changed to the contraction Fujitsū (富士通).
In 1955, Fujitsu founded
Kawasaki Frontale (川崎フロンターレ, Kawasaki Furontāre) as a Fujitsu soccer club. Kawasaki Frontale has now been a
J. League football club since
1999.
After
1981 Fujitsu gradually took over
International Computers Ltd (ICL) in the UK, ultimately becoming Fujitsu Services in 2002. ICL Inc, the US subsidiary was founded in 1992 and was renamed to Fujitsu Transaction Solutions in
2002.
[1][2] This division provides Point of Sale computing products to retailers and service of equipment.
From February
1989 until the Summer of
1997 Fujitsu built the
FM Towns PC variant. It started as a proprietary PC variant intended for multimedia applications and computer games, but later became more compatible with regular PCs. In
1993, the FM Towns Marty was released, a gaming console compatible with the FM Towns games.
Amdahl became a wholly owned subsidiary of Fujitsu in 1997.
The active partnership with
Siemens AG was revived in
1999 in the form of
Fujitsu Siemens Computers, now one of Europe's largest
IT hardware suppliers, and owned 50/50 by Fujitsu and Siemens.
On March 2,
2004, Fujitsu Computer Products of America lost a class action lawsuit over hard disk drives with defective chips and firmware.
On April 1,
2006, Fujitsu Software Corporation merged with Fujitsu Computer Systems Corporation.
Product Lines
'Computing Products Division'
[3]
★ ''LifeBook'' notebook computers.
★ Tablet personal computers, pen based computers. With rotating screen and plastic pen.
★ Scanners - for various purposes of copying print in to digital files.
★ Ethernet switches
★ KVM switches
★ Servers
SPARC Enterprise, PRIMEPOWER, PRIMEQUEST, PRIMERGY high end UNIX, Linux Windows products.
★
ETERNUS storage for enterprise environments.
★ Hard drives for notebook computers, work stations and enterprise servers.
★ ''Mag EraSURE'' degaussers for disposal of magnetic computing media.
'
Plasma displays'
In 1992, Fujitsu introduced the world's first 21-inch full-color display. It was a hybrid, based upon the plasma display created at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and NHK STRL, achieving superior brightness.
'
Fujitsu Consulting'
On march 31 2006 Fujitsu acquired North American based company Rapidigm and stepped into the world of software consulting. In India it has offshore divisions at
Noida,
Pune,
Hyderabad and
Bangalore with Pune being the head office.
In Popular Culture
In the movie
Back to the Future Part II the writers thought by 2015 most companies would be owned by Japan. Marty's employer is Fujitsu in 2015, he is fired by company owner Ito Fujitsu. When the film was shown in Japan, audiences did not understand the joke, since Fujitsu is not a person's name, it is only a company name similar to the American company
General Motors and being fired by Mr. General Motors.
[4]
See also
★
Fujitsu Consulting
★
Kawasaki Frontale
★
FM Towns
★
List of Fujitsu products
★
Fujitsu Ten
★
List of Computer System Manufacturers
References
1. Company Fact Sheet
2. history of ICL and Fujitsu Transaction Solutions
3. List of major computer products
4. Commentary about the making of the film included on the 3-DVD set Back to the Future I, II, III
External links
★
Fujitsu Global
★
Company history
★
Fujitsu user idea and voting website