Women Drive Japanese PC Surge

Computergram International, Sept 1, 1999

Japanese PC sales are tipped to nudge 10 million units during the fiscal year to next March - with young women in the driving seat of new demand. Increased PC shipments in the country are proving a bright spot in Japan?s otherwise shaky economic recovery.

PC shipments will reach 9.98 million units this year and the market for home-use PCs will leap 56% on last year, while PC sales for business users will grow by 10.9%, according to IDC Japan, the Japanese wing of US-based industry watchers, International Data Corp. Total PC sales will span 11.13 million units in 2000 IDC forecasts.

Meanwhile figures from the Japanese electronic Industry Development Association found PC sales for the April-June period this year increased 37% year on year to 2.18 million units. The Nippon Electric Big Stores Association, a consortium of major retailers said last week that PC sales at 3,300 stores across the country had leapt 77.9% year-on-year in July, the biggest increase since December 1995 when sales were driven by the release of Microsoft Corp's Windows 95 operating system.

And the three major electronics-selling districts in Japans big-three metropolitan areas. Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya reported a 132% sales increase from April to June on the same period last year. Cheap pared-down PCs offering just internet access and email bought by 20-something females new to computing are claiming an increasing share of the market - up from 14.68% of the desktop PC market last October to 45.65% in July according to Japanese publishing company, Computer News Inc.

Koyo Matsuo, senior vice president of Japan?s hardware manufacturer, Fujitsu, told Tokyo-based business newspaper, the Nikkei Weekly, that around half of PC purchasers in their 20s were women. The most popular machines are Apple Computer Inc's iMac and the e-one offered by South Korea?s Sotec Co. which sells for Y128,000 - undercutting the standard Japanese PC price of Y200,000 ($1,082).