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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (33313)	11/22/1999 12:58:00 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 70976

Japan's PC Sales Rise in Fourth Week of October November 22, 1999 (TOKYO) -- PC sales in the fourth week of October in Japan appeared to recover, after they had been sluggish since sales of notebook PCs slowed down. Encouraged by the release of new models, including desktop PCs for winter sales by NEC Corp., Fujitsu Ltd. and IBM Japan Ltd., sales in the fourth week of October recorded a positive growth week-on-week. According to data collected by GfK Japan Ltd., Japan's PC sales in the fourth week of October 1999 (Oct. 25-31) at about 2,000 such retail stores rose 10.7 percent in units and 12.9 percent in value compared with the previous week. GfK is an information service company dealing with POS data of 55 household electrical appliance retail stores. When compared to the same week a year ago (Oct. 26-Nov. 1, 1998), the increases were 76.3 percent in units and 61.0 percent in value. The average sales price increased by 3,949 yen to 202,726 yen from a week earlier. (105.77 yen = US$1) The main reason for the sales recovery is that Intel KK released mobile Pentium III microprocessors on Oct. 26. Machines equipped with the new microprocessor were available at stories and triggered winter sales. And because the next week (of Oct. 26) included a three-day holiday weekend, sales in that week were expected to rise further. As for notebook PC sales, inventory adjustment of summer models had finished and new models began to be released. Partly because of these reasons, the average retail price of notebook PCs in the fourth week of October rose to the level of 230,000 yen from the level of 220,000 in the previous week. 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 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. The following graphs are at the Nikkei Market Access Web site in Japanese only. - Trends in the number of (all types of) PCs sold in a week. - Trends in the sales amount (in money) of (all types of) PCs in a week. - Trends in the average sales price of (all types of) PCs sold in a week. - Trends in the number of desktop PCs sold in a week. - Trends in the sales amount of desktop PCs in a week. - Trends in the average sales price of desktop PCs in a week. - Trends in the number of notebook PCs sold in a week. - Trends in the sales amount of notebook PCs in a week. - Trends in the average sales price of notebook-size PCs in a week.

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (33313)	11/22/1999 4:14:00 PM
From: Fred Levine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Brian-- Altho I see nothing but rosey skies in the immediate future, I have found it dangerous to become attached to ANY stock. The whole nature of technology is that it could turn on a dime and AMAT is no exception. It is by far the largest holding I own and has brought me economic security, but if the molecular switch becomes feasible, AMAT could go the way of the blacksmith. I expect another double in 12-24 months, but if technology changes, I don't want to become attached to a sinking company. JMO---fred