Sales of personal computer application software in the US and Canada rose 48% to $2,200m in the third quarter from $1,500m a year earlier, according to the Software Publishers Association. The main increase came from sales of Microsoft Corp Windows applications, which were up 89% at $1,860m against a year earlier. Sales of MS-DOS and Apple Computer Inc’s Macintosh applications continued to decline however, down 54% and 26% to $122.0m and $242.5m respectively in the quarter. Over the nine months, application software sales were up 25% to $5,500m, from $4,400m a year ago, and unit sales were up 63% in the quarter and 65% in the three quarters. Macintosh application sales fell 13% in the nine months. The introduction of Microsoft’s Windows95 in August boosted the quarter’s sales by almost 40% compared with the year before, the industry body said. Consumer software products sales were up 23% in the quarter, with year to-date sales passing the $1,000m mark, which represented a near-40% increase on the previous year. Home education software was the fastest grower in the consumer category in the quarter, rising 30%, while entertainment products showed the highest consumer category growth in the year-to-date, up 73% according to the association.
