Third quarter sees year-on-year growth for Middle East and Africa (MEA) PC market, with both desktop and portable PC segments experiencing volume growth.
IDC reported on the 2.1 percent year-on-year growth of MEA PC shipment volumes during 3Q2014, with a total of 4.26 million units shipped and both desktop and portable PC shipments increasing.
The analyst found that desktop shipments to the region grew 3.6 percent year-on-year to 1.73 million units, while portable PC shipments grew 1.1 percent to total 2.53 million units; with the growth spurred by “two significant education deals in Pakistan and the revival of the Egyptian market”.
However, while vendors shipped a growing volume of notebooks featuring Microsoft’s ‘Bing’ internet search solution to the region, there wasn’t much demand for these devices “despite being aggressively priced at around $300 (€242)”.
Fouad Rafiq Charakla, Research Manager for personal computing, systems, and infrastructure solutions at IDC Middle East, Turkey, and Africa, said: “The market overcame ongoing instability in certain parts of the region to maintain its state of growth in 3Q2014. For example, the Nigerian market was hit hard by the outbreak of Ebola, while the war-like situation in Iraq greatly inhibited shipments to the ‘Rest of the Middle East’ sub-region comprising Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Palestine, and Afghanistan.
“Vendors also had to contend with a general slowdown in PC demand across the region due to the growing popularity of tablets and smartphones. Indeed, an overall regional decline was only averted by the delivery of 150,000 notebooks into Pakistan’s education sector and the return of relative calm to Egypt, which saw these two countries become by far the fastest growing markets during the quarter.”
IDC noted that the three leading PC vendors – HP, Lenovo and Dell – remained unchanged from the previous quarter, with the three companies “the only multinational players to have maintained a stronghold in the region’s commercial segment”. HP, the overall leader, posted year-on-year unit growth of 14.4 percent; while Lenovo continued to benefit from strong consumer demand and was the fastest growing major PC vendor in the region, with shipments increasing 58.2 percent year-on-year. Dell meanwhile recorded year-on-year growth of 23 percent, with the Pakistan education deals serving as a major driver for the OEM.
Focusing on the coming months and years, Charakla commented: “Looking to the future, IDC expects the MEA PC market to shrink two percent overall in 2014. The market will remain close to flat over the coming five years, and may even experience some minor declines, with demand for both desktops and portable PCs continuing to slow in many parts of the region. However, a number of underpenetrated MEA markets – including Egypt, Pakistan, Nigeria, and some smaller African countries – will continue to experience growth, preventing the overall region from experiencing any significant declines.”