(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
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| Japan's PC Sales Grow in 1st Week of Feb.
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March 1, 1999 (TOKYO) -- Japan's personal computer shops are waging a
sales campaign for new spring models, and sales are showing greater
momentum than the 1997 year-end sales battle.
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Still, they haven't reached the level at the peak in 1998 year-end sales.
According to data collected by GfK Japan Ltd.,
an information service company that deals with point-of-sales data of
electrical appliances retailers, PC sales at about 2,000 such stores
during the first week of February (Feb. 1-7, 1999), were up 24.5 percent
in volume and up 32.5 percent in value from the previous week. (See
table.)
Compared with the same week last year (Feb. 2-8, 1998), sales were up
66.7 percent in volume and up 67.2 percent in value. The average selling
price rose by 13,710 yen from 213,117 yen (US$1,760) in the previous
week to 226,827 yen (US$1,880).
Many models displayed in shops have been replaced with spring models
this week.
A steep increase of 66.7 percent in volume was most significant in the
three weeks. An increase in the sales of notebook models was especially
large, which contributed to the overall growth.
Sales both in volume and value are still less than those observed at
the peak in the 1998 year-end sales, but has already succeeded those
in the fifth week of December 1997 (December 29, 1997 to January 4,
1998), which was the peak of the year-end sales two years ago.
Sales in the PC market for consumers has been brisk since the middle
of 1998.
The average selling price of both desktop and notebook models increased
by approximately 10,000 yen (US$80) due to the shift to newly introduced
models for this spring season. The average selling price of desktop
models was more than 200,000 yen for the first time in four weeks since
the first week of January 1999.
GfK Japan collects POS data for 55 IT-related retail sales companies
centering on volume sales stores of home electric appliances throughout
Japan, covering about 3,200 stores (as of April 1998). In cooperation
from GfK Japan, Nikkei Market Access gives weekly reports of personal
computer 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.
It is estimated that the number of PCs sold at these 2,000 stores amounts
to about 10 percent of gross domestic shipment, and when limiting it
to the storefront sales channel, the share comes to about 25 percent
of such shipment.
The following graphs are at 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 first week of February 1999 (GfK Japan survey)
Comparison with the same week a year ago (February 2 to 8, 1998) |
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(return to news)
Related story: PC Sales in 4th Week of Jan. Rise Slightly in
Japan
(Nikkei
Market Access)
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