Japanese Language Kit Q & A Copyright 1993, Apple Computer, Inc. Below is the Japanese Language Kit Q & A. Q. What is the Japanese Language Kit? A. The Japanese Language Kit is a system software extension that supports Japanese language input on a non-Japanese operating system. In other words, you can add the Japanese Language Kit to an English operating system and input Japanese characters using a Japanese or WorldScript application. Q. Will the Japanese Language Kit (JLK) work with systems before System 7.1? A. System 7.1 is required, since this is the first version to incorporate the WorldScript technology, which is what makes multilingual computing possible. Q. Now that you have the Japanese Language Kit , whatšs next? A. Apple is investigating ways in which to make the other languages available to users in the most effective way. Q. Who is the target audience for the JLK? A. The most natural market segments include Japanese nationals working abroad, non-Japanese people providing Japanese language services or products, and education. The education segment includes both Japanese nationals studying abroad, as well as people studying Japanese. For publishers, the JLK provides an opportunity to expand their business by adding the capability to create Japanese language brochures, sign boards, posters, T shirt designs, business cards, etc. Many publishers have been using KanjiTalk, but would prefer to use a system that provides an English finder while allowing them to use a Japanese application and work with Japanese files. Perhaps the largest segment of the market is non-Japanese people with an occasional need to use Japanese in a business or personal setting. This group includes people who may speak fluent Japanese or only a little, but have a need to use it occasionally in documents, letters, and presentations. Many people in business or government, for example, travel frequently to Japan and speak some Japanese. They would like to be able to use kana script or Kanji occasionally in their correspondence and presentations to accurately describe Japanese concepts, place names, family names, etc. even though they are working primarily in English. This product is ideal for them because of its ease of use. Q. Where can I get the JLK? A. The Japanese Language Kit is available in the United States through software resellers and Apple authorized resellers for a suggested retail price of $249. In addition, the Japanese Language Kit will be available through specially authorized KanjiTalk dealers. Customers can call Applešs reseller hot line at 800-732-3131 for information about KanjiTalk dealers. Outside the United States, the Japanese Language Kit is available through a variety of resellers. Pricing and availability varies by country. KanjiTalk, the fully localized Japanese system, will continue to be sold only by specially authorized resellers, who qualify by being able to speak Japanese and agree to provide technical support to their customers. KanjiTalk 7, the System 7 version of KanjiTalk, is not yet available outside Japan, but is expected to be in the near future. Q. How will the JLK be supported? A. Apple will provide technical support for the Language Kit through the 800-SOS-APPL technical support number. Our team in Austin is trained to support the product, and has access to English translations of Japanese text to help customers resolve issues encountered with the JLK. Support policies will vary outside the United States. Q. What third parties are supporting this product? A. The Japanese Language Kit is supported by two kinds of applications: Japanese localized applications, and WorldScript applications. Most major applications -- PageMaker, MacWrite, Persuasion, etc. -- have Japanese versions, and these are available in the United States as well. Other applications, although they are not localized for Japanese, are capable of supporting Japanese character input. WordPerfect and Nisus are leading the field in support of multilingual computing and have products that work very well with the Japanese Language Kit. Apple has tested the JLK with a variety of Japanese applications, and has found that in general, Japanese applications that support System 7 are fully compatible with this new product. Apple, however, does not have the resources to test all applications against all our new products. The JLK has been placed on a developersš CD and we have asked developers to report any compatibility problems to us so that we can make this information available to our reseller and customers. Some of the Japanese applications that Apple has tested and found to be compatible are: Adobe PhotoShop 2.0.1J, Aldus PageMaker 4.0J, FileMaker Pro J 1.0v2, MacWrite II-J 1.1v2, Lotus 1-2-3J 1.1J. Japanese software is available through Applešs KanjiTalk authorized dealers and VARs (call 800-732-3131 for reseller information). A number of firms carry foreign language software through mail order. Q. How does the Japanese Language Kit work? A. Once installed on Macintosh systems with System 7.1, the Japanese Language Kit adds Japanese as a secondary script in the Macintosh system. It adds extensions, a Japanese character input method, a control panel, language resources, fonts, dictionaries, and preference files and utilities that support the Japanese script. The language resources provide script-specific information for line direction, word boundaries, date, time and number formats. To install the Japanese Language Kit, a user simply double-clicks on the install icon, and the program will call for the appropriate disks. As with any system extension, the user must reboot before it becomes active. Through custom install, the user has the option of loading only the minimum configuration to conserve disk space. Q. Will the JLK be available outside the U.S.? Will customers in Japan want to use the JLK? A. The JLK will be shipped worldwide. We expect the largest markets to be the United States and Australia, where Japanese is the most popular foreign language in the schools, but significant markets exist for this product in France, the UK, and Germany. Many users in the Far East, especially Taiwan and Korea, will be interested in this product. There will even be some demand for it in Japan among the foreign community. These are people who prefer to use the English operating system rather than KanjiTalk, because they want an English Finder and complete access to English applications, although they also want to input Japanese and use KanjiTalk files that contain Japanese characters. Q. Why did Apple take so long in delivering a language kit? A. The Japanese Language Kit is shipping just six months after the first release of WorldScript technology. Applešs first priority was delivering the fully localized systems in Japan, China, and Korea. In fact, the Chinese and Korean system have only recently been shipped. Having met those commitments, Apple is now making the first Language Kit available. Q. Why did you decide to do a Japanese Language Kit first? A. A large number of Macintosh users worldwide have been asking for Japanese. We have been trying to meet that demand by making the fully localized system, KanjiTalk, available through a limited distribution channel. Since this was already in place, it is simply a continuation to make a Japanese Language Kit available. In other words, we have a number of resellers across the United States that have already been selling Japanese solutions for at least two years. We are sure to have immediate acceptance of the Japanese Language Kit there. Q. How will Japanese applications work with the Japanese Language Kit? A. Almost all Japanese applications will be supported by the JLK. The JLK requires System 7.1, so applications that are not compatible with System 7.1 will not be supported by the JLK. Q: Isnšt the price rather high for the Japanese Language Kit? A: The price is actually an excellent value considering the features included in the product. The Kit includes 2 TrueType fonts (Japanese fonts typically sell for between $150 to over $1,000 per face) and a fully featured input method. When sold separately, an input method can easily cost over $100. The input method comes with a bilingual guide, which makes it very easy to use regardless of how well the user can read Japanese. Q: Why does the JLK take some much hard disk space? A. The Japanese Language Kit requires about 20 MB of free disk space. Japanese fonts require 6 - 9 MB each in order to accommodate more than 40,000 Kanji characters. Users who do not have sufficient disk space can choose to install only one TrueType font through the custom install menu. Q: Will the telephone support specialists be able to handle questions in Japanese? A. Our staff in Austin does have people who speak Japanese, but we expect to support this product in English because the target customers for this product tend to be bilingual.