Re: XySearch -- Status Report

[michael.norman@xxxxxxxx]

At 12/14/2002 02:23 PM -0800, Robert Holmgren wrote:
> Try "S2/Word Processing" in L/N search.

Robert:
Tried the above and variants of the above including the stem "S2 Word."
Found only the attached, which is included for your amusement.

Michael Norman

Copyright 1978 McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Business Week
May 8, 1978, Industrial Edition
SECTION: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS; West Germany; Pg. 56
LENGTH: 650 words
HEADLINE: Linotype's risky dive into word processing
BODY:

  Riding high on its success in vending photo-offset typesetting
machines to Germany's publishing industry, the German subsidiary
of U.S.-based Mergenthaler Linotype Co. is now stepping in where
its parent company fears to tread: into the riskier but
potentially more lucrative word-processing market. "We see a
time when typesetting will cease to grow," says the subsidiary's
chairman, Wolfgang Kummer. "We will have to grow in other
markets."

  Linotype's entry, which had its debut last week at the
Hannover Fair, is the $20,000 Linotext S2 word processor. Fitted
with keyboard, computer, and cathode-ray screen, the S2 enables
secretaries to make corrections rapidly and shrinks the time
spent on letter-writing and memos. But though the $50 million
market for such equipment is growing 5% a year in Germany and
will grow faster, so far it has been dominated (by as much as
80%) by one company: International Business Machines Corp.
Linotype's introduction of the S2 pits it against IBM in a
country where customers often buy unquestioningly from market
leaders. "It's big risk for Linotype," says a leading
consultant. Indeed, top executives at the subsidiary concede
that the parent company is "skeptical" about the S2's prospects.

 Transition

  But whatever the doubts at Mergenthaler's headquarters in
Plainview, N.Y., few parent companies would argue with the kind
of record run up by German Linotype. Last year the company
>Continued on page 61> >International Business/Continued> boosted
sales by 40% to an estimated $80 million, an increase that Kummer
expects to repeat this year. And with the German printing
industry in the process of switching from "hot type" to photo-
offset -- five or more years behind the U.S. because German
machines were replaced just after the war -- Kummer foresees
continued strong sales of typesetting equipment at least through
1982.

  To look beyond that bulge in demand for typesetting equipment,
Kummer assembled the highly regarded technical staff that
designed the S2. To plan the transition into word processing, he
is counting on help from the strategy staff of Eltra Corp. (BW --
Mar. 13), which has a 65% interest in Mergenthaler's U.S. parent.
"I can say now what our 1979 sales will be," Kummer says in his
precise, old-school manner.

  Industry analysts are not so sanguine. Though they rate
Linotype and its new S2 highly, there are doubts about whether
the company is sophisticated enough to invade IBM's turf. While
Linotype's printing equipment has enjoyed unquestioned dominance
in the German market, it has been much less successful in other
countries, such as Switzerland, where buyers are more critical.
Innovations

  Perhaps the key question will be whether Linotype, without any
other computer lines, can concentrate successfully on such a
narrow segment of data processing. Scoffs one competitor:
"Customers will not want just an isolated solution to their
overall data-processing problems."

  Krummer contends that Linotype can compete successfully with
its basic S2 line, though he plans to add "several" complementary
products. Its price, he claims, can be held to competitive
levels because "the hardware in our office machines is exactly
the same as that we sell to the printing industry." Linotype also
plans to handle office equipment as well as printing companies'
needs.

  But the S2's vital edge, Krummer believes, will come from
technical innovations that are standard in printing, but rare or
unknown in word processing. Among them: Automatic hypenation,
pagination, and the ability to compose two letters at once.
Though industry experts are more cautious in their assessments,
Kummer is not fazed. In fact, he foresees eventual production of
the S2 in the U.S. -- possibly by Mergenthaler's parent company.
"Germany," as he puts it, "may be the test market."