Asia/Pacific Application Software Sales Top $1.1 Billion in 1995

Emerging Markets Show Impressive Increase in Software Sales

April 8, 1996 (Washington, DC) - The Software Publishers Association (SPA)
announced today that sales of personal computer application software
reached $1.14 billion in the Asia/Pacific region during 1995, a 57 percent
increase over 1994. In the fourth quarter of 1995 alone (Q4 95), sales
were more than $326 million, a 58 percent increase from the fourth quarter
of 1994 (Q4 94). Unit sales increases were 142 percent for Q4 95 and 179
percent for the full year.

Japan Continues to Dominate Software Sales Among Asian Markets

The software market in Japan continued to experience strong growth
throughout 1995, with sales topping $757 million for the year - a 67
percent increase over 1994 sales. For Q4 95, sales were $232 million, an
83 percent increase.

Software sales in Japan performed extremely well throughout 1995, with unit
sales up 228 percent for the year. During Q4 95 in particular, Japan had
the highest revenue growth rate of any individual region tracked in SPA's
International Data Program.

Emerging Asian Markets Post Revenue Growth Rates As High As 75%

For mid-tier Asia/Pacific markets such as Taiwan, 1995 was a banner year
for software sales. Revenues from software sales in Taiwan showed a 75
percent increase from 1994 totals, while unit sales soared an amazing 500
percent. The extreme increase in unit sales is likely due to the large
number of OEM agreements that have occurred between software publishers
and hardware manufacturers throughout the region. Other Asian markets also
showed significant revenue increases between 1994 and 1995 #031#-
Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore saw revenues from software sales
increase 60 percent, 45 percent and 44 percent, respectively. The emerging
markets for U.S. software in China, India/Pakistan and Thailand all
continued explosive growth of 125 percent and more.

"Although many of the Asian markets have shown tremendous software revenue
growth over the past year, it is important to remember that software
piracy continues to be an ongoing issue, despite the efforts taken to
counteract the practice," said Jim Sanders, SPA research director.
"Fortunately, legal software transactions have still helped the industry
improve dramatically in markets such as China and Thailand."

Sales data reported are from SPA's International Data Program and represent
total revenues in these regions of the 33 primarily U.S.-based software
firms participating in the program. The companies submit their
confidential sales data to the accounting firm of Arthur Andersen, which
prepares the report for SPA. Among the participants are Claris, Lotus,
Microsoft Corp., Software Publishing Corp., Symantec and the WordPerfect
division of Novell. Although U.S. companies have the dominant market share
in most of these regions, the figures reported should not be taken as an
estimate of the total market size.

Rather, they represent total sales of the reporting companies.

SPA's focus is on companies developing and publishing software applications
and interactive content. SPA is the leading trade association of the
desktop software industry, representing the leading publishers as well as
many start-up firms in the business, consumer and education markets. Its
1,200 members account for 90 percent of the sales of the U.S. packaged
software industry. SPA is an international organization with offices both
in the United States and Europe. SPA press releases are available on SPA's
Web site at http://www.spa.org or through Fax-on-Demand at (800) 637-6823
for U.S. calls, or 908-885-6255 for international calls.

Software Publishers Association
1730 M St, Northwest, Suite 700, Washington, D.C. 20036
202-452-1600,  Fax: 202-223-8756
 
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