The Middle East and Africa (MEA) PC market suffered a 28. 7% year – on- year slump in shipments in the Fourth quarter of 2015.
According to the latest insights from global technology research and consulting firm International Data Corporation (IDC), shipments fell for the third consecutive quarter in Q4 2015, with the decline representing the steepest ever recorded in the region for a single quarter.
In previous quarters, the decline in desktop shipments was less pronounced than the decline in notebooks, but in the fourth quarter of last year, both product categories declined at a similar pace. IDC’s Quarterly PC Tracker shows that 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, ” Fouad Charakla , senior research manager for personal computing , systems, and infrastructure solutions at IDC Middle East, Africa and Turkey says.
According to IDC, “the reasons for these declines varied from country to country, but included high levels political and economic instability and uncertainty, low oil prices, increasing security concerns, and volatile currency fluctuations, especially with the U. S. dollar becoming more expensive.”
Considering the market position of vendors in the region, HP maintained the top spot in terms of market share, despite experiencing a fall of 27.4% year on year, while second -placed Lenovo suffered 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.[quote font_size=”22″ font_style=”italic” align=”right” bgcolor=”#” color=”#” bcolor=”#” arrow=”yes”]Similar to previous quarters , 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.[/quote]
Similar to previous quarters , 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. ”
Similar to IDC ’ s previous forecasts , there will continue to be a gradual shift in the weight of demand from consumers to the commercial segment as a growing proportion of home users switch from PCs to tablets and smartphones while commercial end users maintain a greater loyalty to PCs . As a result, commercial demand for PCs in the region is expected to surpass that stemming from home users by the year 2017.
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