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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