PCs Are Losing to Consoles in Japan

Some may have guessed this was going to happen sooner or later, while some wouldn't even admit it as a possibility. Take first-person shooter gamers for example. Would a FPS gamer ever throw his PC in the basement to play his favorite genre on a joypad? Not likely. The thing is - according to smh.com.au - the Japanese are letting the PC go, not just for games, but for everything, including communication, web surfing and so on.

The website gives Masaya Igarashi as an example of what the Japanese consumer currently wants. 'Caught' shopping at a Bic Camera electronics shop in central Tokyo, Igarashi revealed that he wanted $US200 headphones for his newly acquired iPod Touch, also finding it hard to decide whether to get a Nintendo Wii or a Sony PlayStation 3 console.

More than that, he even confirmed that the next time he manages to save up some cash, he'll be opting for a digital camera or a flat-screen TV: "A new PC just isn't high on my priority list right now," said Igarashi. He added that his three-year-old desktop was "good for now" and that "For the cost, [he'd] rather buy something else."

To confirm the anti-PC-trend even more, the head at market survey firm IDC, Masahiro Katayama, stated that "the household PC market is losing momentum to other electronics like flat-panel TVs and mobile phones," solely because "consumers aren't impressed anymore with bigger hard drives or faster processors. That's not as exciting as a bigger TV," Katayama said. "And in Japan, kids now grow up using mobile phones, not PCs. The future of PCs isn't bright."

The report up on smh.com.au also mentions that according to IDC, the premier global market intelligence firm, overall PC shipments in Japan have fallen for five consecutive quarters, making it "the first ever drawn-out decline in PC sales in a key market." As "the trend shows no signs of letting up," IDC could confirm that desktops fell 4.8 percent in the second quarter of 2007, while laptops fell 3.1 percent.