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  • PC Sales for 4th Week of May Fall Year-on-Year
  • June 22, 1998 (TOKYO) -- Personal computer sales at some 2,000 mass marketing outlets in Japan during the fourth week of May (May 25-31 ) showed that PC sales decreased 5.2 percent in value from a year earlier (May 26-June 1, 1997).
    This showed negative growth for the first time in eight weeks since the fifth week of March. The unit-base sales figure increased by 9. 1 percent.

    The figures were compiled by GfK Japan Ltd., an information service company handling the POS data.

    However, sales for this year's said week showed an increase of 1.6 percent in numbers and 2.3 percent in value compared to the previous week (See table ).

    Various PC manufacturers introduced the first phase of their summer models earlier than usual in view of the imminent launch of Windows 98 in late July. In conjunction with this, much of the shipments of spring models were concentrated at a earlier stage than usual, and many models were sold out in the retail market in May as a consequence.

    Leading manufacturers are expected to introduce the second phase of their summer models in time for the launch of the Windows 98. They are all likely to restrict the number of shipments of the models for Windows 95 to avoid accrued inventories. Therefore, sales may be picking up significantly as late as the end of July.

    The average sales price increased from 217,514 yen (US$1,590) by 1,6 03 yen to 219,117 yen (US$1,600).

    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 fourth week of May 1998 (source: GfK Japan)
    "Year-before weekly comparison" in the Table means the comparison with May 26 - June 1, 1997.

    (return to news)

    Related story : PC Sales in Japan in Third Week of May Rise 9.3 Pct

    (Nikkei Market Access)


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    Nikkei BP BizTech, Inc.
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    Updated: Fri Jun 19 16:40:28 1998