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Technology Stocks : ATI Technologies in 1997 (T.ATY) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Marc who wrote (3929)	8/27/1999 12:34:00 PM
From: Marc	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 5927

Demand for Mail Pushes Up Japan's PC Sales in Summer '99 August 27, 1999 (TOKYO) -- Summer sales of personal computers in Japan turned out to be a record this year. According to a spokesman for Laox computer retail store in Akihabara, an electronics district in Tokyo, "In June and July 1999, we sold twice as many personal computers in quantity as in the same period of 1998." The main T. ZONE shop increased sales by 10 to 15 percent on weekdays during June and July. Likewise, PC makers enjoyed favorable sales results. A spokesperson at NEC Corp. said, "We have gained double-digit growth without any difficulty." According to Fujitsu Ltd., "Our sales have grown sharply compared with 1998." Sources agree that the recent popularity of e-mail is the driving force of growing PC sales. "E-mail has been established as a communication tool mainly among people between their 20s and 30s. These people are accustomed to using a mobile phone and personal handyphone system (PHS) terminal to exchange e-mails. Now they started to use a PC," Sofmap Co., Ltd. said. "It is likely the PC market will keep growing for the time being," Sofmap added. An increasing number of people started using PCs in order to communicate via e-mail. According to NEC, "Those who buy a PC for the first time account for about 70 percent of the total buyers. This is a 10 percentage point increase over a year ago." Female users have especially increased, and now they account for as much as 30 percent of total number new PC purchasers. There are three popular genres of the products: wide-screen notebook PCs, liquid-crystal display (LCD) desktop PCs and low-priced desktop PCs. Both notebook PCs and LCD desktop PCs are popular because they occupy a comparatively small space. But as demand centered on these models, PC makers are running short of liquid-crystal panels. Fujitsu could not supply a sufficient quantity of fast-moving notebook PC models, which caused many PC stores to fall short of supply. ================================== <<I wonder who is the world leader or soon to be (notebook) in all those market, and why they don't talk about Quake benchmark here ??>> Marc ================================== The low-priced, all-in-one type PCs, priced at between 130,000 and 150,000 yen, gained popularity among novice users who want to experience the Internet easily. Users of many years hoping to replace or buy another PC paid attention to machines at the lowest price range of around 100,000 yen. (111.03 yen = US$1) Prior to this season, some shops and manufacturers forecasted that PC sales would remain at a low level until early July. They expected less of sales because PCs preinstalled with "Word 2000" and "Excel 2000" were scheduled to launch on July 9, in accordance with the release of Microsoft Co., Ltd.'s "Office 2000." But it turned out that shoppers did not wait or hesitate to buy a PC this season, because their interests are in e-mail and Web sites. "They no longer sticking to upgrades of word-processing and spreadsheet software," says Sofmap. Consequently, previous models that were discounted at about 20,000 yen after the release of the newest models gained so much popularity among users that inventories were exhausted quickly at PC shops, sources said. Nikkei Personal Computing)