(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
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| Japan's PC Sales Decline in 3rd Week of February
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March 15, 1999 (TOKYO) -- Personal computer sales at Japanese retail
mass electric appliances shops leveled off the third week of February,
as new models were introduced.
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The leveling-off was caused also by people's wait-and-see attitude before
the coming spring recess in March.
According to a report by GfK Japan Ltd., an information service company
that handles POS data of 55 electric appliances stores, PC sales at
about 2,000 such stores during the third week of February (Feb. 15-21)
declined by 15.8 percent from the previous week in units and by 15.1
percent in value.
However, when compared with the comparable figures from the same week
of the preceding year (Feb. 16-22), the sales increased 79.7 percent
in units and 76.0 percent in value.
The average sales price is 230,260 yen, up 1,889 yen from 228,371 yen
during the previous week (120.61 yen = US$1).
Although the retail sales maintained growth of more than 20 percent for
two consecutive weeks in February, the sales in units and value as well
in the third week of February 1999 showed a decline of more than 15
percent from the previous week.
The sales at such stores, however, maintained growth of nearly 80 percent
compared with the same period of the preceding year.
The preceding week (Feb. 8-14) had enormous sales because of a national
holiday. This impacted the sales of the Feb. 15-21 period.
The average sales price of desktop PCs is 3,258 yen, down from the previous
week. As opposed to that, the average sales price of notebook PCs increased
by 5,888 yen from the previous week. For desktop PCs, prices of new
models for a spring sales campaign period are already showing downward
trends.
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 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 third week of February
1999 (GfK Japan survey)
Comparison with the same week a year ago (Feb.
9-15, 1998)
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Total
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Desktop PC
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Notebook PC
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Week-on-week comparison
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Year-before weekly comparison
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Week-on-week comparison
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Year-before weekly comparison
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Week-on-week comparison
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Year-before weekly comparison
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Volume
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-15.8%
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+79.7%
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-17.5%
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+70.6%
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-14.3%
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+88.8%
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Value
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-15.1%
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+76.0%
| -18.8%
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+59.8%
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-12.2%
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+90.4%
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Related story: PC Sales in 2nd Week of Feb. Rise Nearly 90 Pct. from Year Earlier
(Nikkei
Market Access)
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