Panasonic was the Japanese company that found pricing in the US home computer market so keen that it decided that tags had become crazy and withdrew from the business, but the company – part of the giant Matsushita Electric group, is playing a tougher game in the IBM Personalike market. Shortly before Christmas, its Panasonic Office Automation Group Computer Products Division in Seacaucus, New Jersey slashed suggested retail prices of its Business Partner series of Personalikes, and added new configuration offerings. The Business Partner 286 with dual disk drives, model FX-800, now has a suggested retail price of $2,249, down 25%. The single drive version, model FX-800Fl, falls 25% to $2,099. The 8086-2 based FX-600 Business Partner with dual floppies falls 16.4% to $1,249 and the dual floppy model is off 12.4% to $1,099. Panasonic also introduced new hard disk configurations, with the Business Partner 286 model FX-800-600HD30, 30Mb hard disk model going for $2,999. The 20Mb version of the 8088-2 FX-600 is $1,699. Monitor and adaptor card controllers are extra.
