The Software Publishers Association has reported that third quarter personal computer application sales in western Europe of $307m represented a 20% decline in value over the same quarter in 1993, while quarterly unit sales grew by a whopping 65%. Revenues declined for all three major environments – quarterly Windows sales of $259m were down 7%, Macintosh sales of $20.1m were down 28% and MS-DOS sales of $24.3m were down a dramatic 65%. Windows, however, showed an increase of 17% over 1993’s first three quarters, while Mac and MS-DOS were both down for the year-to-date, by 11% and 53%, respectively. It was Europe’s biggest economies that turned in the revenue declines – France fell 16%, Germany and Austria 43%, the UK and Ireland, 12%, Italy, 29%, and Switzerland, 27%. Benelux, Greece, Scandinavia apart from Sweden, Spain and Portugal and Sweden all showed revenue growth, with Spain and Portugal seeing the highest rate, at 48%.
