The Middle East and Africa (MEA) PC market has experienced the steepest decline in a single quarter.
This is according to market analyst firm IDC, which says the market suffered a 28.7% year-on-year slump in shipments in the final quarter of 2015.
IDC says in Africa, SA currently has the largest PC market, accounting for 35.5% of the overall PC shipments on the continent.
However, local PC players are also reporting a slump in shipments mostly due to the weakening local currency.
According to The Notebook Company, a local reseller of PCs, computer prices, including for laptops and tablets, have increased 20% since November 2015.
Christopher Riley, CEO of The Notebook Company, says there is a growing trend for South African companies to rent laptops from suppliers, as the PC market continues to face a global slowdown.
IDC says in a shift from earlier quarters in the year when the decline in desktop shipments was notably less pronounced than the decline in notebooks, this time round both product categories declined at a similar pace.
IDC's Quarterly PC Tracker shows desktop shipments declined 29.4% year-on-year in Q4 2015 to total 1.3 million units, with notebook shipments falling 28.2% over the same period to total 1.9 million units.
"Similar to the previous quarter, Turkey, the 'Rest of the Middle East' grouping (Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and Palestine), Saudi Arabia and Pakistan experienced the sharpest declines within MEA," says Fouad Charakla, senior research manager for personal computing, systems and infrastructure solutions at IDC Middle East, Africa and Turkey.
"The reasons for these declines varied from country to country, but included high levels of political and economic instability and uncertainty, low oil prices, increasing security concerns, and volatile currency fluctuations, especially with the US dollar becoming more expensive."
Fellow research firm Gartner also notes all regions registered a decrease in shipments. Currency devaluation issues continued to impact EMEA, Latin America and Japan, it notes, adding that collectively EMEA, Japan and Latin America saw their markets reduced by nearly 10% in 2015.
Market share
IDC points out that overall, HP maintained the top spot in terms of market share, despite experiencing a fall of 27.4% year-on-year, while second-placed Lenovo had a decline of 29.9% on shipments.
Dell, on the other hand, escaped with a mild decline of 8.7% year-on-year as the vendor had experienced a relatively slow quarter during the same period last year.
Declining slightly slower than the overall market at 23.2% year-on-year, Asus overtook Acer to claim fourth position, while Acer experienced the fastest decline among the top vendors at 42.9% year-on-year.
Similar to previous quarters, IDC notes the local assembly of desktops continues to slow as a growing portion of end-users opt for refurbished PCs, upgrades, or to prolong their refreshment cycle altogether as they increasingly shift their usage towards mobile phones and tablets.
"As market sentiment remains low, IDC expects to see a delay in the recovery of PC demand," says Charakla.
"Overall, 2016 will experience a further decline on 2015, as growth is only expected to occur in the second half of the year. A slightly stronger recovery is expected during 2017, after which the region will continue to experience a period of slow growth over the longer term. As the growing popularity of smartphones and tablets will continue to inhibit demand for PCs, vendors and channels across the region are expected to plan and order cautiously so as to avoid being left with high inventory levels."
Share