The big name these days in personal computers in Germany is not Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG or even Commodore International Ltd but Vobis Microcomputer AG, 50%-owned by retailer Kaufhof Holding AG, which operates a chain of computer shops and assembles its own machines at a rate of 1,000 to 3,000 a day at its Aachen factory: according to the Wall Street Journal, it is now the market leader in Germany with 15% of the market last year, when sales reached $605m; it also has stores in Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium and Italy and has designs on Spain and after that either France or the UK.
