Charles and thread,
PC sales are ON FIRE in Japan led by HOME segment:
Monday February 21, 10:58 pm Eastern Time
Japan 1999 PC shipments up 36.7 pct yr/yr - IDC
TOKYO, Feb 22 (Reuters) - International Data Corp (IDC) said on Tuesday Japanese shipments of personal computers (PCs) rose 36.7 percent from a year earlier to 10.83 million units in calendar 1999 mainly due to higher shipments of home-use PCs.
Shipment of home-use PCs rose a steep 85.4 percent from a year earlier to 4.9 million units in 1999, it said.
Launches of all-in-one type PCs, PCs using LCD (liquid crystal display), and design-conscious models by major makers generated consumers' demand.
Shipment of desktop PCs rose 37.6 percent from a year earlier to 5.84 million units in 1999, and those of portable PCs rose 35.9 percent to 4.73 million units, it said.
IDC Japan, a unit of U.S. market research firm International Data Corp, forecast that Japan's PCs market will expand by 20 percent from a year earlier to 12.96 million units in 2000.
In 1999, Apple Computer Inc (NasdaqNM:AAPL - news) increased its share to 5.9 percent with shipments of 639,000 units from 5.1 percent with 407,000 in 1998, helped by strong demand for the iMac and iBook models, it said. Apple remained at sixth largest.
Sony Corp also increased its share to 6.8 percent with 736,000 units, from 3.8 percent a year earlier and was ranked fifth largest in 1999 against eighth in 1998, helped by its VAIO series.
NEC Corp topped the list with 2.40 million units shipped in 1999 but its share fell to 22.2 percent from 27.2 percent a year earlier, followed by Fujitsu Ltd with its share at 20.7 percent, down from 23.1 percent.
International Business Machines Corp's (NYSE:IBM - news) Japanese unit, IBM Japan, had a share of 10.1 percent, down from 10.4 percent, while Toshiba had 7.2 percent, up from 7.0 percent and Hitachi Ltd had 4.3 percent, down from 5.3 percent.
Compaq Computer Corp (NYSE:CPQ - news) had a share of 4.2 percent, down from 4.3 percent, and Dell Computer Corp (NasdaqNM:DELL - news) was 3.7 percent, up from 3.1 percent, it said. |
