Subscribe

MEA PC market suffers sharp decline

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 31 Aug 2015
The IDC reports that a growing demand for tablets and smartphones continues to hamper the PC market's performance in the MEA.
The IDC reports that a growing demand for tablets and smartphones continues to hamper the PC market's performance in the MEA.

The Middle East and Africa (MEA) PC market suffered a sharp year-on-year decline of 25.6% in Q2 2015. This, according to International Data Corporation (IDC), marks the steepest decline recorded for a single quarter.

Overall, PC shipments for the quarter fell to 3.3 million units. Desktops were down 21.2% year-on-year to 1.4 million units, while the notebook segment declined 28.6% to total 1.9 million units.

"Currency fluctuations both inside and outside the MEA region will remain largely responsible for the slower demand, particularly in key markets such as Turkey and Nigeria," says Fouad Charakla, IDC research manager.

"Low oil prices are also impacting those countries whose budgets rely strongly on oil revenues, ratcheting up the pressure on governments to control their spending. At the same time, the cannibalisation of PC demand by tablets and smartphones continues to hamper the market's performance."

The top vendors:

1. HP shipments fell 26% year-on-year.
2. Lenovo shipments dropped 19% year-on-year.
3. Dell shipments decreased 10.3% year-on-year.
4. Acer shipments fell 29.3% year-on-year.
5. Asus shipments dropped 26.7% year-on-year.

Local desktop assemblers suffered significantly in comparison to the previous year, as demand for their devices continues to be hindered by the growing availability of refurbished PCs, states the report.

2015 is expected to be the region's worst performance, with overall PC shipments for the year set to fall 15.7% year-on-year to total 15.2 million units.

The IDC expects the MEA PC market to experience a partial recovery in 2016, with shipments tipped to grow 10%. The following years are forecast to remain close to flat in terms of shipment growth.

However, there will be a gradual shift in the weight of demand from consumers to the commercial segment, according to the IDC. This is because more consumers will choose to use a tablet or smartphone at home and not a PC. Commercial users will continue to use PCs.

As a result, commercial demand for PCs in the region is expected to surpass that from home users by the year 2017.

Share