(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
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| PC Sales in 4th Week of Jan. Rise Slightly in Japan
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February 22, 1999 (TOKYO) -- Sales of personal computers in Japan continued
to decline in the initial three weeks of January, but a slight rise
was seen in the fourth week in terms of units.
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According to statistics compiled by GfK Japan
Ltd., PC sales at about 2,000 shops in the fourth week of January (Jan.
25-31) posted a week-on-week increase of 2.0 percent in terms of units
and a 0.5 percent decline in value.
GfK Japan is an information service company that handles point-of-sales
data of volume shops that sell home electric appliances.
Compared with the same week last year (Jan. 26-Feb. 1, 1998), PC sales
posted a year-on-year increase of 24.8 percent on a unit basis and a
18.4-percent increase in terms of value.
Desktop PCs scored week-on-week increases in both units and value, while
notebook PCs suffered declines in both categories. Retailers began displaying
some spring models in their shops at the end of January, and the appearance
of the new models is widely expected to boost PC sales.
The average PC retail price in the fourth week of January was 213,117
yen (US$1,785), down 5,338 yen from the previous week's level of 218,455
yen (US$1,830), and registering an all-time low since GfK Japan began
compiling the statistics.
The average retail price of a desktop PC is now at a record low level,
and prices of notebook PCs have been declining since the beginning of
the year.
GfK Japan collects POS data from 55 IT-related retail sales companies
centering on volume sales stores of home electric appliances, covering
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 number and value.
The volume and value of sales have been based on the data obtained from
the same 41 companies (about 2,000 stores) since April 1996 so as to
enable time series comparison.
The number of PCs sold at the 2,000 stores is estimated to comprise about
10 percent of gross domestic shipments, and when limiting it to the
storefront sales channel, 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.
Table: PC sales in the fourth week of January 1999 (GfK Japan survey)
Comparison with the same week a year earlier (Jan. 26 to Feb. 1, 1998). |
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(return to news)
Related story: PC
Sales in Japan Fall 25 Pct. in 3rd Week of Jan.
(Nikkei
Market Access)
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