According to the "Home Appliances and IT Market Trends in the First Half of 2021" compiled by GfK Japan, the market size of PCs and tablets increased by 45% from the previous year to 14.6 million units.
Of these, personal computers increased 28% year-on-year to 9.5 million units. As a result of the expansion of demand due to the advance implementation of the "GIGA School Concept," which aims to distribute one terminal to each elementary and junior high school student, the resale market increased 49% from the previous year to 7.2 million units.
Meanwhile, the retail market fell 11% year-on-year to 2.3 million units. The company analyzes that it is a reaction to the expansion of the market due to the increase in telecommuting and online lessons under Corona, in addition to the replacement demand due to the end of support for Windows 7 in 2020.
The number of tablets increased by 92% from the previous year to 5.1 million units. As with personal computers, the resale market grew 263% year-on-year to 3.7 million units due to educational demand. The retail market fell 17% year-on-year to 1.4 million units.
By communication method, the composition ratio of "Wi-Fi model" was the highest at 68% of the total, followed by "model with carrier line" at 30% and "SIM free model" at 2%.
Mobile phone sales increased 33% year-on-year to 16.5 million units. Of these, smartphones, which account for more than 90%, increased 36% to 15.5 million units, and feature phones decreased 2% to 1 million units.
In addition, within a year or so after the commercial service of 5G (5th generation mobile communication system) started in March 2020, smartphones compatible with 5G were released one after another, and the number increased rapidly to 52% of the total.
At the same time, as a result of the progress in increasing the screen size of smartphones, the composition ratio of screen sizes of 6 inches or more has increased to 49%.
