PC shipments in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region are enjoying positive growth, with the region performing better than expected, says the IDC.
However, it says overall figures for the PC market in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region have suffered from slow consumer demand and contracted by 8.9% in the second quarter of this year. This was due to a poor performance in the Western Europe region.
This is because of sustained high levels of inventory inhibiting stronger sell-in, particularly in Western Europe, and led to a decline in overall shipments across EMEA, compared with the same quarter last year, the IDC explains.
“A shift in interest and budget toward other products continued to contribute to weak consumer demand and slow stock depletion across Western Europe, but Central and Eastern Europe and MEA continued to expand and enjoy positive growth, performing even better than expected, driven by robust demand for portable PCs.”
Turmoil aside
The Central/Eastern Europe Middle East and Africa (CEMA) markets' growth partially offset the slowdown in Europe and contributed to overall EMEA results.
The MEA region reported PC growth of 12.2% year on year, according to the IDC.
“Despite the political turmoil, the region continued to report healthy results, driven by portable sales. Consumer demand was the major growth driver as commercial demand remains soft," said Stefania Lorenz, research director, hardware and systems research, IDC CEMA.
Tablet obstacle
Western Europe shipment levels further decelerated, recording a decline of 20.9%, impacted by persisting high inventory levels and slow consumer demand across the region, which prevented stronger sell-in from most vendors, according to the IDC.
It adds that there was a continued shift in budget and interest toward other devices, particularly new media tablets and smartphones, and this led to PC purchases being postponed.
"Although no major rollout has started just yet, we're seeing very encouraging signs for Windows-based slate tablet adoption. IDC estimates that in Q2, close to 20 000 slate tablets shipped in the Western European commercial segment, compared with just 5 000 during the same quarter last year," said Eszter Morvay, research manager, IDC's EMEA personal computing research division.
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