A roundup of Middle East and Africa’s PC market

The International Data Corporation (IDC) has announced that he Middle East and Africa PC market exited the third quarter of 2016 almost flat, with a year-on-year growth of 0.4 percent based on shipments of 3 million units. Desktop shipments suffered a decline of 16.9 percent while notebook shipments grew 14.5 percent.

"The recovery witnessed in Turkey, the largest single market in the MEA region, was the biggest contributor towards this growth, due to unusually low shipments in Q3 2015 and a faster-than-expected recovery from the failed military coup," says Fouad Charakla, senior research manager for client devices at IDC MEA. "At the same time, some recovery from instability in the North African markets, when compared to last year, also contributed towards PC shipment growth, while deliveries as part of large education deals in the UAE and Kenya were other notable market drivers."

Microsoft no longer groups the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (GCC) with its emerging markets when it comes to setting prices for its operating systems. As a result, these countries are now charged more for Windows OS on PC’s than before, meaning new vendors began pushing their selling orders prior to the change coming into effect. This was one of the factors driving notebook shipments across the six gulf countries.

HP recorded significant growth both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year in the last quarter of 2016, accounting for the highest market share ever secured by a single PC vendor over the past decade. Lenovo maintained a high position in second place, with large deliveries in the UAE education sector helping sales.

"IDC's forecast for the MEA PC market has been revised downwards owing to a range of factors that are expected to cause the regional PC market to decline over the coming two quarters," says Charakla. "These vary from country to country, but primarily include currency issues, which are affecting key markets such as Nigeria, Egypt, Turkey, and South Africa, and the constriction of government initiatives caused by low crude oil prices. Such factors are expected to lead to project delays or even cancellations across the GCC, as well as in Nigeria and other African countries."

IDC has said it does not predict any significant change in PC shipments in 2017. However starting in 2018, it is expected there will be marginal growth until 2020.

Photo credit: Marcie Casas