In a growing trend, people are no longer buying Personal Computers in Japan as they used to. College kids are saving up for the iPod Touch, Wii, PlayStations, digital camera or flat-screen TV and phones but the PC is conspicuous by its absence on the shopping list. Other gadgets have overtaken the ‘once-awesome monopoly on processing power’ of the PC as more and more people are relying on smartphones and PDAs to do the needful. Many youngsters feel that there are better options available in the market, and opt for ‘better’ gadgets instead of the PC. As it is Japan’s PC market is already shrinking, leading analysts to wonder whether Japan will become the first major market to see a decline in personal computer use some 25 years after it revolutionized household electronics. The other question on their minds is that whether this could be the picture of things to come in other countries.

Overall PC shipments in Japan have fallen for five consecutive quarters, the first ever drawn-out decline in PC sales in a key market, according to IDC. The trend shows no signs of letting up: In the second quarter of 2007, desktops fell 4.8 percent and laptops 3.1 percent. NEC’s and Sony’s sales have been falling since 2006 in Japan. Hitachi Ltd. said in Oct. 22 it will pull out of the household computer business entirely in an effort to refocus its sprawling operations. “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.” With so many gadgets available in the market that bypass the PC in functioning, looks like it wont be long before the PC-fever hits other countries.
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