Computer Hardware and Software in Turkey

Software usage

Demand for computer software in Turkey will continue to show strong growth over the next few years. The Turkish government is encouraging more widespread use by levying very low import tariffs on computer equipment and software. At present, wides pread piracy of both domestic and foreign computer programs is the main drag on increased software sales. Software is often bundled with computer sales. Specialized / customized software tends to dominate the import figures. The manufacturing sector is th e largest user of computer software in Turkey, followed by the finance and education sectors. Despite the copyright situation, several major U.S. companies maintain marketing offices in Turkey.

Platform usage

The following are the most popular Operating Systems in Turkey (in no particular order):

MS-DOS and MS-Windows

Widely used at universities, small businesses and urban households.
Microsoft has a solid base in Istanbul, and thus aggressively promotes its products.

Unisys MCP

Koç, the largest holding in Turkey, is the country's sole distributor of Unisys computer systems. All large government institutions, as well as all Koç firms, use Unisys mainframes which use the MCP/ASN operating system.

IBM OS/400

AS/400 mainframe systems are very popular in Turkey, and IBM does an excellent job marketing them.

IBM AIX

RISC/6000 workstations / minicomputer systems are just as popular as AS/400s, and are currently gaining more and more market share.

SunOS

Sun workstations, Sun SPARCstations, and their Taiwanese compatibles have had a great deal of success lately, especially in the academic field, the CAD area, and the press industry.

Software in dollars

Computer Software in Turkey
	1993	1994 (est.)	1995 (est.)
Total Market Size	$70	$67	$75
Total Local Production	30	32	35
Total Exports	--	--	--
Total Imports	40	35	40
Imports from the U.S.	22	20	25

PC usage

There are only 0.2 PCs per 1000 capita in Turkey. This low figure can be explained by the facts that 65% of the population is rural, and the economy is highly dependent on agriculture (as much as 56% of the labor force is in the agricultural sector). Personal Computer usage is thus concentrated in metropolitan areas and more specifically in t he business world, though the decreasing prices of computer hardware are allowing for an important increase in household usage of PCs.

Studies show that 55% of computer sales in Turkey are realized in Istanbul, followed by Ankara at 19%, Izmir at 11% a nd Samsun at 2%.

Hardware production

Hardware production in Turkey consists of mere PC assembly. Components are all imported.

Chip manufacturing

No manufacture of integrated circuits is available in the Turkish industrial arena. Yet, Bilkent University in Ankara has a research lab capable of producing Gallium Arsenide chips, a technology that is believed by some to be the basis for the ne xt generation of computer chips.

Hardware in dollars

Computer Hardware and Peripherals in Turkey
	1993	1994 (est.)	1995 (est.)
Total Market Size	$720	$580	$630
Total Local Production	160	140	150
Total Exports	20	20	30
Total Imports	580	460	510
Imports from the U.S.	95	80	90

Major players in IT sectors

Hardware

The major Turkish players in the computer hardware field are: Koç-Unisys, Escort Computer, Acer and Apple.

IBM, NCR, and Siemens-Nixdorf, followed by Digital Equipment Corporation and Hewlett Pac kard, have set up full subsidiary offices in Turkey, notably in Istanbul.

Software

Logo Software, Link Software, Microsoft

Peripherals

Hewlett Packard, IBM, Koç-Unisys, Oki (for printers), Panasonic (for printers), NCR (for bank ATMs)

Services

Bilpa, Tam Computer Services, Bilgisayar Hastanesi (Computer Hospital), Reuters, Dow-Jones Telerate

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