(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
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| Japan's PC Sales Brisk in First Week of August
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August 31, 1998 (TOKYO) -- Personal computers continued to sell well
in Japan at large home electric appliance shops, though not as well
as in the week right after the release of Windows 98.
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According to figures gathered by GfK Japan Ltd.,
an IT data service company handling point of sales (POS) data of electric
appliance retailers, PC sales at about 2,000 shops in the first week
of August (Aug. 3-9, 1998) showed a 73.7 percent increase in units and
66.4 percent in value compared to the same week in 1997 (Aug. 4-10,
1997).
Especially brisk are notebook-type PC sales, which are the second-highest
following the previous week, which immediately followed the release
of Windows 98.
The results in units and value both didn't exceed those of the previous
week (4th week of July), showing a 6.8 percent decrease in number and
7.7 percent decrease in sales amount.
The average selling price combining desktops and notebooks was 234,046
yen (US$1,620), 2,375 yen lower than the previous week's 236,421 yen
(US$1,630). It was the first drop in four weeks.
The average selling price went up continuously for three weeks for both
desktops and notebooks since the second week of July, backed by demand
for switching to Windows 98 models and for higher-end models.
Demand in the individual user market, expected to be steadily present,
will help the average selling price stay relatively stable.
The data GfK Japan releases are from about 2,000 outlets of 41 firms.
GfK Japan picked the 41 first in 1996 and has been releasing their data
since then.
GfK Japan covers a far greater number of outlets with combined unit-base
sales accounting for about 10 percent of total domestic PC shipments
and about 25 percent of total retail sales.
The following graphs are at Nikkei
Market Access 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 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 sale in the first week of August 1998 (source: GfK Japan)
"Year-before weekly comparison" in the Table means the comparison with
Aug. 4 to Aug. 10, 1997. |
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(return to news)
Related story: Japan's PC Sales Up in 4th Week of July Due to Window
98
(Nikkei Market Access)
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