Software Destinations

I just read Michael Panda’s rant article How Apple iTunes 5.0 Almost Ruined My Life and can totally relate where he is coming from, having put in six years in Japan myself. This seems like a classic business infrastructure vs technology problem that is at the heart of issues surrounding international distribution. At the heart of this is that good development can solve problems but they cannot resolve territorial issues. (more…)

Shade is a general 3D modeling and animation product from Japan. It has an ancient history as far as software goes, beginning life in 1986 and quickly dominating the Japanese 3D market. At the time, the Japanese desktop computer industry was dominated by the NEC-98 series, not exactly an IBM/AT clone but close enough; yet not close enough that it wasnt a problem developing for it. The NEC-98 series ruled Japan’s computer industry, and not a lot of foreign software ran on it without serious adaptation. No real foreign competition in the very early 3D market ever made it on the NEC-98. (more…)