Japan PC shipments surge with Internet boom-Home sales up 70%,biz up 20%,overall 40%
Drew:
Here is something to thinkg about.
TOKYO, Aug 5 (Reuters) -
Purchases of personal computers by Japanese households surged in the April-June quarter, in a sign that the Internet has finally caught on among Japanese consumers, an industry organisation said on Thursday.
Domestic shipments of PCs for the April-June quarter jumped 38 percent from a year earlier to 2.03 million units, the third-highest quarterly growth rate on record, the Japanese Electronic Industry Development Association (JEIDA) said.
Behind the strong growth was a sharp increase in first-time PC buyers wishing to surf the Internet and exchange e-mail, said Koyo Matsuo, head of the association's PC committee.
Sales of home-use PCs soared 70 percent in the three-month period, while the corporate market expanded by a healthy but more modest 20 percent, buoyed by a turnaround in the economy, he said.
The share of home PCs in overall PC sales rose to about 40 percent, up from 30 percent a year earlier.
''Expansion in the consumer market was a key reason for the strong first quarter. The global Internet boom has finally reached Japan,'' Matsuo said.
Japan is the world's second-biggest PC market after the United States, but household ownership remains low at around 10 to 20 percent.
Picking up on the Internet boom, manufacturers like NEC, Fujitsu, IBM Japan and Compaq Computer rushed to offer low-cost, user-friendly PCs that can be connected to the Internet by pressing a single button on the keyboard.
''Ease of function is the key to selling to individual consumers,'' an NEC spokesman said.
But it was relative newcomers that enjoyed some of the strongest growth.
Sony Corp quadrupled its PC sales during the quarter with its Vaio brand PCs, according to research company Multimedia Sogo Kenkyusho.
The Vaio scored high marks from consumers for attractive design and easy connectivity with camcorders, digital cameras and other audio-visual products.
By contrast, all of Japan's top three PC makers -- NEC, Fujitsu and IBM Japan -- saw their market share decline. JEIDA, comprising 20 PC makers operating in Japan, expects heathy consumer demand to continue during the rest of the business year to next March, with total shipments rising to eight million units from last year's 7.5 million.
''One slight concern is that businesses may cut their purchases in the second half after they've dealt with the millennium computer bug problem,'' an association official said.
Private research companies IDC Japan and Dataquest, however, are more optimistic on future trends. They expect domestic PC shipments to easily top 10 million units in calendar 2000.
Household ownership of PCs in Japan wll rise to around 52 percent in 2003, matching the current U.S. diffusion rate, IDC Japan said.
In another bit of good news for Japanese consumption trends, the Japan Mini Vehicle Association said on Thursday that Japanese sales of 660cc minivehicles in July jumped 30.4 percent from a year earlier.
Analysts said Japan's overall consumption trends are still weak, however, with strong PC and minivehicle sales providing some of the few bright spots.
Domestic vehicle sales excluding the inexpensive minis fell 13.9 percent in July from a year ago, according to industry data released earlier this week.
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