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  • PC Sales in 2nd Week of Feb. Rise Nearly 90 Pct. from Year Earlier
  • March 12, 1999 (TOKYO) -- Japan's PC sales at electric appliance retail stores in the second week of February (Feb. 8-14, 1999) rose nearly 90 percent as compared to the same week in the previous year.
    Compared to the previous week (Feb. 1-7), the sales expanded more than 20 percent, or at about the same pace as during the shopping season at the end of 1998.

    PC sales at about 2,000 shops in the second week of February 1999 witnessed a 22.5 percent increase from the previous week in units, and a 23.3 percent increase in value, according to the data gathered by GfK Japan Ltd.

    GfK Japan is an information service company that deals with POS data of 55 mass retail stores selling electric appliances.

    Compared to the same week in the previous year (Feb. 9-15, 1998), the sales increased 89.7 percent in units, and 87.9 percent in value. The average sales price rose to 228,371 yen, up 1,544 yen from the previous week (120.68 yen = US$1).

    Because the second week of February had a Japanese holiday (Feb. 11), an increase from the preceding week was expected. However, when compared to the same week in 1998, which also had the national holiday, the increases are enormous.

    Steady demand has helped stabilize the average sales price. The average sales price of notebook PCs fell slightly while desktop/tower types increased by 4,042 yen. This pushed up the combined average sales price for the second straight week.

    This was the first time in three months that the average sales price increased for two weeks in a row. The last such time was during the winter sales season that started in November 1998.

    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 second week of February 1999 (GfK Japan survey)

    Comparison with the same week a year ago (Feb. 9-15, 1998)

    Total

    Desktop PC

    Notebook PC

    Week-on-week comparison

    Year-before weekly comparison

    Week-on-week comparison

    Year-before weekly comparison

    Week-on-week comparison

    Year-before weekly comparison

    Volume

    +22.5%

    +89.7%

    +24.1%

    +73.4%

    +21.0%

    +107.8%

    Value

    +23.3%

    +87.9%

    +26.5%

    +67.5%

    +20.9%

    +108.1%



    Related story: Japan's PC Sales Grow in 1st Week of Feb.

    (Nikkei Market Access)



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    Updated: Thu Mar 11 14:05:34 1999 PDT