Compliments of Mohan.....
Japan's PC Sales in 2nd Week of October Rise 58.5 Pct
November 9, 1998 (TOKYO) --
Sales of personal computers in Japan in the second week of October increased
nearly 60 percent compared to the same period a year ago in both units and value.
Sales in the period this year were thought to be affected negatively by a typhoon that
arrived on that weekend.
According to figures collected by GfK Japan Ltd., a data service company that handles
point-of-sale data, PC sales during the second week of October (Oct. 12-18, 1998) at about
2,000 large-volume home appliances stores declined from the previous week, seeing a 6.2
percent decrease in volume and a 6.4 percent decrease in value. However, in comparison to
the same period last year (Oct. 13-19, 1997), the number of units sold increased by 58.5
percent and so did the sale values, by 57.5 percent. (See table).
In the first week of October, weekly sales continued to grow at a rate of more than 50
percent from the year-ago level. The drop attracted attention as to what trend PC sales
would set in the subsequent weeks. Results show that sales in the second week increased
greatly. The PC market for individual users sustained growth.
The average sales price for all PCs was 223,462 yen (US$1,900), with a slight decline of
369 yen from the previous week's 223,831 yen.
As the market is replacing summer models with winter ones, the average notebook PC
price increased by 1,620 yen (US$14). On the other hand, the average desktop price
showed a significant decline of 1,695 yen. The selling price for desktop PCs was the lowest
ever, below the second lowest of 202,656 yen, which was recorded at the time of the first
week of June 1998.
The data GfK Japan releases are from about 2,000 outlets of 41 firms.
GfK Japan picked the 41 first in 1996 and has been releasing their data since then.
GfK Japan covers a far greater number of outlets with combined unit-base sales accounting
for about 10 percent of total domestic PC shipments and about 25 percent of total retail
sales.
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Japan's PC Shipments Rise in July-Sept. Period
November 9, 1998 (TOKYO) -- The Japan Electronic Industry Development Association
(JEIDA) said personal computer shipments rose for the second quarter of fiscal 1998 (July
to September).
A total of 1.79 million units were sold domestically, a rise of 9 percent over the
corresponding period last year. Despite this increase in unit sales, the total value of sales
remained relatively flat, at 393.1 billion yen (US$3.34 billion).
The rise in the total number of units shipped is the first quarterly gain over the previous
year's figures in five quarters. Sales first started falling below the previous year's figures
during the second quarter of last fiscal year (July-September 1997).
From early 1997 onwards, unit sales of desktop PCs had been consistently below the
previous year's figures, but in this latest quarter the trend turned upwards at last, thanks in
part to Windows 98, which appeared in shops at the end of July.
Therefore, sales of desktop machines in units posted a 5 percent gain over the
corresponding period of the previous year. Despite that, due to a drop in the average price of
each unit, the total value of desktop shipments stayed almost unchanged.
In the first quarter of this fiscal year PC sales figures were markedly down in terms of both
value and numbers of units. This means that despite the unit-based upswing in the second
quarter, sales figures for the first half of the 1998 fiscal year (April to September) still do not
exceed those for the same period in 1997.
Actual figures for the first half of fiscal 1998 show that 3.27 million units were sold, a 3
percent fall from the previous year, while the total value of sales was 728.3 billion yen
(US$6.2 billion), a drop of 13 percent compared with the same period in 1997.
JEIDA stated at the beginning of this fiscal year that it expected the year's total sales to
surpass last year's by 5 percent. If that target is still to be achieved, then figures for the
second half of the year will be up by 13 percent over the corresponding six-month period
last year.
Tetsuya Mizoguchi, chairman of JEIDA's Personal Computer Promotion Committee and a
senior vice president at Toshiba Corp., said sales to private users can be expected to
remain level, or possibly even rise, during the third quarter.
He also said sales to corporate customers will start picking up momentum some time in
the fourth quarter thanks to the effects of the government's "Total Plan" of stimulus
measures intended to boost the Japanese economy in general. For these reasons, JEIDA
considers it too early, as yet, to think about revising the original sales estimate for the
whole year.
If sales of desktops and notebooks are treated separately, then it is clear that shipments of
notebooks continue to be strong, with 855,000 units being sold in the quarter, a 14 percent
gain over the figure for the same three months last year.
As mentioned earlier, sales of desktops also posted an increase, up 5 percent over last
year, at 942,000 units. So, although in the past the number of notebooks as a percentage
of the total number of units sold has always been rising, this quarter they stood at 48
percent, down 1 percentage point from the first quarter's figures. Therefore, sales of
notebooks still haven't reached a level where they account for the larger part of the market.
The average unit cost of notebook PCs actually increased, from 227,000 yen (US$1,930) in
the first quarter to 234,000 yen (US$1,990) in the second quarter. JEIDA said that in
addition to screens becoming larger and performance improving, the rise in the average unit
cost could be partly due to a feeling that prices for components have bottomed out and
won't continue falling.
In stark contrast, second quarter figures show the average unit price of desktop models
reached the lowest level ever of 205,000 yen (US$1,740), falling from 228,000 yen in the first
quarter. For this reason, despite the 5 percent rise in unit sales, sales in terms of total
value were down 8 percent to 193 billion yen (US$1.64 billion) when compared with the
corresponding figure the previous year. One factor behind this is said to be the increasing
use by PC makers of cheaper compatible chips. |
