 (Nikkei BP Group)
 (No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
|
|
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)
<Visit News Center for more Asian news.>
|
|
|