To ALL: Article...Some more evidence of Japanese sales...
upside.com
Japan's PC Market Slows To 33 Percent Growth
By TODD ZAUN
c.1997 Bloomberg News
Japan's personal computer market grew 33 percent in 1996 as consumers bought smaller, more expensive machines, a technology research company said.
About 7.57 million personal computers valued at 1.9 trillion yen (US$15.6 billion) were sold in Japan last year, up 33 percent in unit terms and 43 percent in value from 1995, according to Dataquest Japan K.K., an arm of California-based Dataquest Inc.
Japan's growth rate beat that of the U.S. computer market, which expanded 13.6 percent, and outpaced the 17.8 percent world computer market expansion.
NEC Corp. was the top vendor, selling 2.42 million units for a 32 percent share, down from last year's 40 percent. Fujitsu Ltd. remained number-two for a second year but increased its share to 22 percent from 18 percent.
International Business Machines Corp. leapfrogged Apple Computer Inc. to come in third with 899,000 units or 12 percent, up from 10 percent. Apple and Hitachi Ltd. captured 11 percent and 6.4 percent of the market.
Growth slowed from 1995's blistering 71 percent rate as vendors focused more on profitability than capturing market share, Dataquest said. The average price of computers sold increased over the year.
The average cost of a personal computer in Japan climbed 5.6 percent to 244,000 yen (US$2,008). The share of notebook computers rose 1.2 percentage point to 31.8 percent. Some 17 percent of Japanese homes had personal computers in 1996, up from 12 percent in 1995.
The Japanese market will likely grow faster than the worldwide rate again in 1997, Dataquest said, predicting a 27 percent expansion to 9.6 million units.
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