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To: Sig who wrote (159201)	8/5/2000 1:56:07 PM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Hi Sig, Have you seen this? :)Leigh Internet Boom Sends PC Shipments Surging By Yuka Obayashi Thursday August 3 3:45 AM ET TOKYO (Reuters) - Shipments of personal computers in Japan in the April-June quarter surged 35 percent from a year earlier to 2.74 million units, reflecting an Internet boom among consumers, an industry body said on Thursday. The surge to a record for the quarter was due mainly to demand from individuals, particularly for notebook computers, which exceeded shipments of desktops for the first time, the Japan Electronic Industry Development Association (JEIDA) said. A growing appetite to use e-mail and surf the Internet has boosted retail buying by individuals -- especially first-time users -- in recent months, while a modest recovery in the economy has spurred corporate purchases. ``The April-June shipments exceeded our original estimates due to the faster-than-expected expansion of the consumer market,'' an official at JEIDA told a news conference. ``But we would like to wait another three months to see if we need to revise up our annual shipments forecast.'' In May, the association forecast Japan's PC shipments in the business year to next March would rise 15.7 percent to a record 11.5 million units, up from last year's 9.94 million units, which itself represented growth of 32 percent. ``One thing we are confident about is that our estimate for the current year is certainly attainable,'' the official said. Strong Consumer Demand In the April-June quarter, domestic notebook PC shipments jumped 41 percent, reflecting an increase of mobile use and improved functionality of notebooks, which have become as sophisticated as desktop computers. JEIDA, comprising 17 PC makers operating in Japan, said shipments of notebooks topped those of desktops for the first time, at 1.377 million versus 1.362 million, although desktop PCs scored a solid 29 percent growth from a year earlier. The industry body also attributed the results to falls in PC prices and Internet access charges. The average price of a PC in the quarter fell four percent from the same period last year to 179,000 yen ($1,646), it said. In value terms, domestic shipments of PCs and peripheral equipment totaled 596.7 billion yen, up 16 percent. Although the data does not include shipments of firms that do not belong to the association such as the Japanese arms of U.S. computer giants Compaq Computer Corp and Dell Computer Corp, the figures represent 90 percent of the domestic market, according to the official. In the global PC market there has been a serious shortage of electronic parts due to the Internet boom and the growing popularity of wireless telecoms worldwide. ``PC shipments for the three months would have been even higher if the components had met demand. The supply of parts used in PCs has been 10-15 percent short of demand,'' the official said. He predicted double-digit growth in Japan's PC market would continue at least for another year, helped by a further spread to first-time users as well as increasing replacement demand from firms. Internet use in Japan, the world's second-biggest PC market, has been held back by the relatively low number of home computers and high telecoms connection charges. But strong sales raised the percentage of households owning a PC to around 28 percent at the end of 1999 from 20 percent a year earlier. Still, that figure is half the estimated 50 percent of U.S. households with PCs in 1999. dailynews.yahoo.com