The ongoing Japanese earthquakes have affected an entire nation, but they affected the global tech industries as well, including some of the biggest players around. Japan is a very big presence in the global IT industry, and now that factories and local outlets throughout the nation have been shut down, companies and customers are beginning to see prices going up.

One of the companies affected is Hewlett-Packard. The company has confirmed that all of its local employees were fine, but revenue from Japan historically has accounted for 3 percent to 4 percent of the company’s global revenue. This mean the company may see a slight decline in revenue, but moreover, we can also expect toners and Laserjet printers to become more expensive whilst many component factories remain closed.

Another company who is taking a hit is Apple, notably when it comes to the cost of manufacturing the iPad 2. Customers however will not feel any difference, since Apple announced it is willing to absorb the higher component prices.

Moving on to Sony, some sources have indicated after the disaster that the electronics giant may be delaying the launch of the new Playstation Portable NGP consol. The company has also suspended operations at seven manufacturing plants.

However, HP, Apple and Sony are only some of the companies who have been affected in more than one way from the Japanese disaster.  BBC News reported today that Panasonic has closed two factories in northern Japan due to the ongoing aftershocks.

All of the causes above, mainly the closure of dozens factories in light of the disaster, are beginning to influence prices and customer patterns all around the world, considering Japan’s position in the global IT market. Nevertheless, a large number of tech companies are contributing to the relif efforts. Among them is Microsoft who donated almost $2 million in cash and free software, Zynga and AudioDraft – a music crowdsourcing start-up who took a particularly creative approach to raising funds for the cause.