Japan's PC Sales Reach Record High in 1st Week of Dec.
January 11, 2000 (TOKYO) -- Personal computer sales in Japan during the first week of December 1999 reached an all-time high both in units and value.
Particularly noteworthy is that in terms of amount, sales surpassed the "last-minute demand" immediately before the implementation of the consumption tax hike in March 1997.
According to Gfk Japan Ltd., PC sales at about 2,000 retail stores during the first week of December (Dec. 6-12, 1999) increased 24.0 percent in units and rose 26.8 percent in amount, compared with the previous week.
Gfk Japan Ltd. is an information service company handling POS data of 55 household electric appliance retail stores.
In comparison with the same week a year ago (Dec. 7-13, 1998), PC sales soared 29.4 percent in units and 13.4 percent in amount.
The average sales price rose to 203,357 yen, up 4,553 yen from the previous week's 198,804 yen. (104.39 yen = US$1) The growth rate in sales of both desktop/tower and notebook PCs exceeded 20 percent, in comparison with the previous week.
The extremely brisk tone of the market was the first such case since the second week of February in 1999 (Feb. 8-14). The figures comprised a 24 percent increase from the previous record-high in units and 7 percent in amount.
In terms of units, sales in the fourth week of November (Nov. 22-28) had renewed the prior record. But in terms of amount, the pace of growth was a step behind, partly because of lowered prices, and it met the prior record marked in the fourth week of March 1997 (March 24-30), just before the consumption tax hike was implemented.
The average sales price returned to the level in the middle of November. This was attributed to the growth in the sales of notebook PCs and the favorable tone of space-saving models with liquid crystal displays (LCDs), a high-priced type among the desktop PCs.
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 channels, the share comes to about 25 percent of such shipments.
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