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Japan's PC Summer Sales Peak in 3rd Week of July, Fall in 4th Week
August 23, 1999 (TOKYO) -- Summer sales of personal computers appeared to have peaked in the third week of July.
According to GfK Japan Ltd., PC sales at about 2,000 electric appliance shops in the fourth week of July (July 26-Aug. 1) declined 20.7 percent in terms of units and 20.4 percent in value, compared to the previous week.
GfK Japan is an information service company handling POS data for volume retailers of consumer electric appliances.
Compared to the same week in the previous year (July 27-Aug. 2, 1998), the number of PCs sold increased by 26.1 percent. In value terms, PC sales increased by 20.4 percent. The average sales price rose from 224,986 yen to 225,648 yen. (111.58 yen = US$1)
Japan's summer sales battle, which peaked at the launch of new models with pre-installed Microsoft Office 2000, passed its crest.
In the fourth week of July 1998 various models with pre-installed Windows 98 appeared on the market and sales were trending upward. During the fourth week of July this year, PC sales achieved a year-on-year increase of more than 20 percent. Thus, sales remain at a high level.
The average sales price showed no marked fluctuations. In July 1998, a significant model change was seen, and an emphasis was placed on the improvement of the basic functions of PCs to go with Windows 98. As a result, prices rose.
This was the first time in 26 weeks (since the fourth week of January 1999) that the average sales price of notebook PCs fell below the level of the same week in the previous year.
GfK Japan collects POS data from 55 IT-related retail sales companies centering on high-volume stores specializing in home electric appliances. It covers about 3,200 stores (as of April 1998) throughout Japan.
In cooperation with GfK Japan, Nikkei Market Access provides weekly reports of PC sales in volume and value.
The sales data has been based on the same 41 companies (with about 2,000 stores) since April 1996.
The number of PCs sold at the 2,000 stores is estimated to comprise about 10 percent of gross domestic shipments, and when limiting the sales to retail sales channel, the share comes to about 25 percent of such shipments. |
