Falling Yen forces Fujitsu to raise PC prices

The Japanese government has been working hard to lower the value of their currency in a bid to boost exports, which account for the vast majority of the island country's economy.

Unfortunately, for companies such as Fujitsu who sell most of their products domestically, the lower Yen is creating financial hardships.

The Yen is currently at 102.117 to the USD, a drastic change from late 2012 where the Yen was fairly static at around 79 Yen to the dollar. With domestic markets accounting for more than 66% of Fujitsu's PC sales over the past year, the rising costs of importing key components such as processors from companies like Intel and operating systems like Windows from Microsoft, the company is being forced to increase the prices of its new domestically sold PCs and reduce discounts on existing lines.

Fujitsu plans to restructure its line by reducing the number of products it sells as well as cutting down on the variety of materials and components used in their manufacturing. The company has also cut 5000 jobs and is transferring a further 4500 to other companies.

On May 8th Toshiba announced that it may also raise its domestic PC prices, though there is no indication that this will affect the price of either company's products internationally at this stage.

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