O Pioneer! -- Japan-based Pioneer Electronics Corporation announced last week that it has reached an agreement with Apple to license the Mac OS for use in Pioneer's first entries into the personal computer market. Pioneer, well-known for its home electronics products, plans to produce multimedia computers directly for the home entertainment market, featuring a high degree of integration with new and existing Pioneer technologies. Pioneer certainly has a lot to build upon the home electronics arena, but one wonders if Pioneer is up to the sort of technical support, quality assurance, and evangelism necessary in the computer industry. Pricing information hasn't been announced and it's unclear if Pioneer intends to introduce these products outside of Japan.

Pioneer plans units based on the 66 MHz PowerPC 601 and the 33 MHz 68LC040, each with 4.4x CD-ROM drives and multisync monitors. Pioneer promises to bundle original software with its units to "provide a new world of A/V computing" and provide easy capture and manipulation of audio and video data. Prototypes will be demonstrated this week at the Macworld Expo to held in Chiba, Japan. [GD]