(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
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| Japan's PC Shipments Rise in July-Sept. Period
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November 9, 1998 (TOKYO) -- The Japan Electronic Industry Development
Association (JEIDA) said personal computer shipments rose for the second
quarter of fiscal 1998 (July to September).
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A total of 1.79 million units were sold domestically, a rise of 9 percent
over the corresponding period last year. Despite this increase in unit
sales, the total value of sales remained relatively flat, at 393.1 billion
yen (US$3.34 billion).
The rise in the total number of units shipped is the first quarterly
gain over the previous year's figures in five quarters. Sales first
started falling below the previous year's figures during the second
quarter of last fiscal year (July-September 1997).
From early 1997 onwards, unit sales of desktop PCs had been consistently
below the previous year's figures, but in this latest quarter the trend
turned upwards at last, thanks in part to Windows 98, which appeared
in shops at the end of July.
Therefore, sales of desktop machines in units posted a 5 percent gain
over the corresponding period of the previous year. Despite that, due
to a drop in the average price of each unit, the total value of desktop
shipments stayed almost unchanged.
In the first quarter of this fiscal year PC sales figures were markedly
down in terms of both value and numbers of units. This means that despite
the unit-based upswing in the second quarter, sales figures for the
first half of the 1998 fiscal year (April to September) still do not
exceed those for the same period in 1997.
Actual figures for the first half of fiscal 1998 show that 3.27 million
units were sold, a 3 percent fall from the previous year, while the
total value of sales was 728.3 billion yen (US$6.2 billion), a drop
of 13 percent compared with the same period in 1997.
JEIDA stated at the beginning of this fiscal year that it expected the
year's total sales to surpass last year's by 5 percent. If that target
is still to be achieved, then figures for the second half of the year
will be up by 13 percent over the corresponding six-month period last
year.
Tetsuya Mizoguchi, chairman of JEIDA's Personal Computer Promotion Committee
and a senior vice president at Toshiba Corp., said sales to private
users can be expected to remain level, or possibly even rise, during
the third quarter.
He also said sales to corporate customers will start picking up momentum
some time in the fourth quarter thanks to the effects of the government's
"Total Plan" of stimulus measures intended to boost the Japanese economy
in general. For these reasons, JEIDA considers it too early, as yet,
to think about revising the original sales estimate for the whole year.
If sales of desktops and notebooks are treated separately, then it is
clear that shipments of notebooks continue to be strong, with 855,000
units being sold in the quarter, a 14 percent gain over the figure for
the same three months last year.
As mentioned earlier, sales of desktops also posted an increase, up 5
percent over last year, at 942,000 units. So, although in the past the
number of notebooks as a percentage of the total number of units sold
has always been rising, this quarter they stood at 48 percent, down
1 percentage point from the first quarter's figures. Therefore, sales
of notebooks still haven't reached a level where they account for the
larger part of the market.
The average unit cost of notebook PCs actually increased, from 227,000
yen (US$1,930) in the first quarter to 234,000 yen (US$1,990) in the
second quarter. JEIDA said that in addition to screens becoming larger
and performance improving, the rise in the average unit cost could be
partly due to a feeling that prices for components have bottomed out
and won't continue falling.
In stark contrast, second quarter figures show the average unit price
of desktop models reached the lowest level ever of 205,000 yen (US$1,740),
falling from 228,000 yen in the first quarter. For this reason, despite
the 5 percent rise in unit sales, sales in terms of total value were
down 8 percent to 193 billion yen (US$1.64 billion) when compared with
the corresponding figure the previous year. One factor behind this is
said to be the increasing use by PC makers of cheaper compatible chips.
Related stories:
� Japan PC Shipments from April-June Fall 14 Pct.
� FY97 PC Ships Fall Y-O-Y for First Time in Five
Years
(BizTech News Dept.)
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