Middle East and Africa PC shipments decline 25% in Q1

First quarter PC shipments in the Middle East and Africa fell 25.9 compared to the same period in 2015, marking the fourth consecutive year-on-year decline in the market, according to consulting firm IDC.

During the first three months of the year, shipments totalled 3.2 million units, following a 28.7 per cent YoY decline in notebook shipments to 1.9 million units and a 21.4 per cent decline in desktop shipments to 1.3 million units.

IDC MEA senior research manager for personal computing systems Fouad Charakla said declines were seen in all the largest markets in the region in the first quarter.

“The reasons differ from country to country, but slowdowns in tourist spending, lower consumer confidence resulting from low oil prices, political and economic instability, currency devaluations and military conflicts have all played a part in the regional contraction.”

He said a consumer shift to smartphones and tablets was also contributing to the market’s decline.

The top three vendors in the region in Q1 remained HP, Lenovo and Dell. They witnessed declines of 23.4 per cent, 25.2 per cent and 28.9 per cent respectively with only fourth placed Acer growing shipments by 2.2 per cent year-on-year.

Looking ahead, the looming holy month of Ramadan and usual summer slowdown in activity is expected to lead to another record decline in shipments in the second quarter.

But Charakla said in the longer term the PC would was expected to recover, with modest growth anticipated in 2017 and the following years. During this period, Shipments to Africa are expected to grow slightly faster than those in the Middle East.

“As highlighted in IDC’s previous forecasts, there will continue to be a gradual shift in the pattern of demand from consumers to commercial customers, as a growing proportion of home users switch from PCs to tablets and smartphones, while commercial end users retain a stronger loyalty to PCs,” IDC said.

Commercial demand for PCs in the region is expected to surpass that of home users by 2018.