(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
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| Japan's PC Sales Brisk in Third Week of October
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November 16, 1998 (TOKYO) -- Sales of personal computers in the third
week of October were brisk in Japan, yet the average sales price of
PCs continued to decline.
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The average sales price of desktop PCs fell below 200,000 yen (US$1,625)
for the first time since the survey started in 1996.
According to the survey by information service
company GfK Japan Ltd., PC sales in the third week of October (Oct.
18 through 25) at about 2,000 retailers increased 9.9 percent compared
with the previous week on unit basis, or an 8.1 percent increase on
value basis(See table).
GfK Japan Ltd. handles POS data at volume retail stores that sell household
appliances.
In addition to the introduction of the Windows 98 operating system and
the iMac PC, Nikkei Market Access assumes that the Mac OS 8.5 launched
on Oct. 17 contributed to the increased sales. Sales in both units and
value increased by about 60 percent compared to the same week last year.
The percentage of notebook PCs to total unit-base sales reached a record
high of 53.6 percent.
While PC sales are brisk, the average sales
price of PCs declined to 219,727 yen (US$1,785), or 3,735 yen lower
than the prior week's 223,462 yen.
The average sales price of desktop PCs declined below 200,000 yen for
the first time since 1996, when the survey was started, to 199,637 yen
(US$1,620; See chart).
Moreover, the average sales price of notebook PCs fell 6,368 yen from
the level of a week earlier, registering the sharpest fall since the
first week of March this year (a fall of 8,716 yen).
The data GfK Japan releases are from about 2,000 outlets of 41 retail
companies.
GfK Japan selected the 41 companies in 1996 and has been releasing their
data since then.
GfK Japan covers a 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.
Table: PC sales in the third week of October 1998 (GfK Japan survey)
The comparison with the same week of the previous year refers to Oct.
20 through 26, 1997.
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(return to news)
Chart: Change of average weekly sales price of desktop PCs (GfK Japan
survey)
Other changes of sales unit/value are available through the Nikkei
Market Access Web site (Japanese only). |
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(return to news)
Figure: Change of average weekly sales price of desktop PCs (GfK Japan
survey).
Related story: Japan's
PC Sales in 2nd Week of October Rise 58.5 Pct
(Nikkei
Market Access)
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