Economic woes in a number of asian countries < most notably, japan, south korea, Thailand, and Indonesia> were putting a big damper on pc sales in asia. Asian sales of pcs in 1998 were expected to grow minimally, if at all , and some analysts expected unit volume to fall below 1997 levels. Sharp appreciation of the u.s. dollar against asian currencies had made u.s. produced pcs more expensive to asian buyers. In contrast, sales in the united state and Europe were quite robust, mainly because of lower pc prices.