First quarter 1995 sales of personal computer software in the North American market rose 24.8% to $2,030m, the Software Publishers Association reports. Unit sales in North America increased by 73%, reflecting much keener pricing. Strong sales of Windows software was the key contributor, with sales soaring 43% for the quarter to $1,430m, while sales of Macintosh applications were up only 10% at $307.5m compared with first quarter 1994. MS-DOS applications continue to lose ground, falling 25% to $2,686m, so Windows application revenues now account for 71% of total sales in the North American market. Word processors and spreadsheets were once again the largest categories in the quarter with sales of $249.4m and $189.0m respectively, but while word processors were up 18%, spreadsheet sales were down 15%. Database products jumped 55% to $65.2m. The entertainment and financial software categories may appear to have little in common but they were again two of the fastest growing segments in North America, with fun-and-games rising 84% to $174.3m and financial software growing 37% to $185.8m. Home education software took a breather and was off 19% at $89.4m after several quarters of strong growth. The entire decline was down to a sharp drop in sales of reference software. Despite the suite wars, integrated packages, not a separate category last year, account for only $33.3m sales.
