Japanese PC Sales fall 12th month in a row

Going down

Japan last month recorded its 12th straight decline in monthly PC sales, despite a 34.9% increase in unit shipments on March 2001. The month-on-month shipments data showed a 4.6% decline, and a 9.6% fall in sequential quarterly shipments.

GfK Japan, which derives its monthly PC shipment data from a regular survey of 3,400 volume retailers of home electric appliances in Japan, noted that the final week in March retained its status as a peak Spring shopping period in Japan, but sales were still down on last year.

The only growth GfK cold find in the market was in the notebook sector, where March sales grew year-on-year 5.3%, and 1.4% sequentially. Desktop sales, however, fell back 21.9% month-on-month.

GfK also said that fewer consumers said they expect to buy new PCs in the coming year, suggesting that the downward trend may have at least another 12 months to run.

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