Sonny and ALL, Two articles...Major Japan PC Makers To Boost 98/99 Shipments
TOKYO (Reuters) - Major Japanese personal computer makers said on Monday they would boost domestic personal computer shipments in the year to March 1999 by roughly 10 percent from the previous year.
The companies said the higher demand would be fueled by the launch of Windows 98 this summer and the launch of new PCs using the latest Intel Pentium microprocessors.
They expect effects of the government's stimulus package to boost the economy to also help increase PC demand. Fujitsu will increase its domestic shipments to about 2.25 million units in 1998/99 from two million a year earlier, a Fujitsu spokesman said.
NEC expects its shipments in the first half of 1998/99 to remain flat from a year earlier, but to be up about 10 percent in the second half, a NEC spokesman said.
Its 1997/98 shipments totaled 2.95 million units.
Toshiba expects its PC shipments in 1998/99 to be 10 percent higher than the 600,000 units it shipped in 1997/98, a Toshiba spokesman said.
IBM Japan, the Japanese unit of IBM, has not disclosed its 1998/99 domestic shipment plans but was aiming at a 1998/99 growth rate that was higher than the industry average, an IBM Japan spokesman said.
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Inventory woes don't slow PC growth
By Margaret Kane, ZDNN
04.27.98 10:50 am ET
Inventory problems may have dogged PC companies during the past quarter, but they haven't hurt their sales into the channel, according to new studies from a pair of research firms that put worldwide PC growth at 14 percent.
U.S. PC shipments grew between 14 and 16 percent, according to studies from International Data Corp., of Framingham, Mass., and Dataquest Inc., of San Jose, Calif.
Both firms ranked Compaq Computer Corp. number one domestically, with IDC giving it a 17.3 percent share of the market and Dataquest assigning it a 17.1 percent share.
Although Compaq had some well-publicized inventory problems during the quarter, most of the issues dealt with sales out of the reseller and distributor channel. Both studies measured sales into the channel, meaning that the company's strong growth this quarter doesn't necessarily bode well for upcoming quarters.
"We think Compaq reduced their inventory situation slightly but it needs to come down significantly over the rest of the year," said Scott Miller, an analyst at Dataquest. "Computers are like fruit -- they rot if you leave them in warehouses too long."
Dataquest put Compaq's worldwide market share at 12.5 percent. The researcher did not release figures for the worldwide market, citing requests from some of its clients not to release data until complete results are in.
For firms that ship directly to consumers, there were encouraging signs.
Both Dell Computer Corp. and Gateway Inc. had strong quarters, with Dell growing more than 60 percent at home to garner some 11.7 percent of the market. Dell came in third worldwide according to Dataquest, which gave it a 7.3 percent share figure.
"What can you say about Dell that doesn't sound like a broken record?" said Kevin Hause, an IDC analyst. "They're firing on all cylinders, growing everywhere."
Gateway, which had struggled last year to resolve its own inventory problems, was back on the right track during the first quarter, growing at around 40 percent in the U.S. The firm grabbed slightly more than 8 percent of the market, enough to place third in IDC's study but only fourth, behind Packard Bell-NEC, in Dataquest's survey.
Dataquest put privately held Packard Bell's share at 8.9 percent in the U.S., while IDC said the figure was 7.9 percent, good for fourth place.
Despite that difference, both firms said the company had lost considerable share from a year ago, with unit growth dropping about 10 percent.
IDC's Hause said that the company's NEC Now program, designed to help manage inventory more efficiently, has been slow to take off.
"It doesn't seem to be ramping as quickly as they would have hoped, and they're still struggling in the consumer market," he said. "They're still getting the volume, but [pricing] pressure from Compaq and Hewlett-Packard Co. in the low end has been taking a toll."
Although HP didn't make it into the U.S. top five, its share of the worldwide market grew from 4.2 percent last year to 6.3 percent during the first quarter, according to Dataquest.
"HP really hit the ball out of the park this time," Miller said. "Not only did they grow worldwide, but their [unit shipment growth in the] U.S. was 76 percent."
The company also managed to sharply reduce its inventory position, he said.
Rounding out the top five at home and abroad was IBM, which saw setbacks in Japan but managed a relatively strong showing in the U.S. Its domestic share figure was almost 8 percent, while worldwide its share was 7.6 percent, second behind Compaq.
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Regards, Michael |
