Tiny Akia, with only 70 people, lists companies the size of Hitachi and Toshiba among its subcontractors.
ECONOMIST: Small firms in Japan
2.
Akia plans to start selling its computers in America next year.
ECONOMIST: Small firms in Japan
3.
Like Nintendo, the new generation of small fabless firms capitalise on some special skill (designing cheap but powerful computers in Akia's case) and then use their compactness to run circles around the heavyweights.