Japan's Average PC Retail Price Increases
October 12, 1999 (TOKYO) -- Total sales of personal computers in the second week of September increased in Japan for the first time in three weeks.
According to a survey by GfK Japan Ltd., PC sales at about 2,000 appliance stores in the week of Sept. 13-Sept. 19 increased 2.4 percent in units and rose 2.5 percent in volume, from the previous week.
GfK Japan handles point of sales data for 55 volume retailers of consumer electronics products throughout Japan.
On a year-on-year basis (as compared with Sept. 14-Sept. 20, 1998), sales soared 49.6 percent, the survey said.
Also, the survey said that the average PC price rose from 204,318 yen to 204,358 yen, a gain of 40 yen from the prior week.
Although PC sales have increased on a week-on-week basis, because the average price has fallen revenues were lower.
The average PC price leveled off, because the average price for desktop/tower type PCs, which continued falling, gained little ground in the week.
The price of desktop/tower PCs increased by 0.3 percent to 173,861 yen, the survey said.
While the average price of desktop/tower PCs increased, the average price of notebook PCs dropped by more than 2,000 yen to 235,953 yen, because prices for summer models plunged, the survey said.
However, because stores have already put on sale autumn PC models of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. and Sony Corp., their prices are not expected to fall like those of desktop/tower PCs in August, the survey noted.
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 terms of 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.
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