After seven quarters of year on year declines, the Middle East and Africa PC market returned to growth in Q2, posting an increase in total shipments of 2.2% to 4.5 million units. According to research from IDC, the figures show growth in both the desktop and portable product categories, with the former growing 2.9% YoY to reach 1.8 million units and the latter expanding 1.7% over the same period to total 2.7 million units.
The biggest growth in PC shipments was seen in the Rest of Middle East sub-region, which comprises Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Palestine, and Afghanistan, despite no vendors making any official PC shipments into these countries. “The high volumes of devices seen entering this sub-region came as parallel imports through second- and third-tier resellers”, says Fouad Rafiq Charakla, research manager for personal computing, systems and infrastructure solutions at IDC Middle East, Turkey, and Africa. “However, parts of this sub-region have recently witnessed increased levels of instability, particularly in Iraq, and demand is now forecast to slow down slightly as a result, although we don’t expect these developments to prevent overall growth for 2014”.
HP maintained the highest PC market share in the region during the second quarter, with strong YoY growth of 26.1% and with the fastest growth seen in the consumer space. Lenovo in second place was the fastest growing multinational vendor in the MEA PC market, with shipments increasing 71.2% from a year earlier. Similar to HP, the vendor’s strong performance was primarily rooted in the consumer segment. Dell maintained its position at number three, despite suffering a mild YoY decline of 3.3% following a weak performance in the consumer segment. Acer and Asus ranked fourth and fifth, with shipments rising 15.1% and 40.1% year on year, respectively.
As previously forecast, the region’s PC market is expected to experience yet another quarter of YoY growth in Q3, with shipments increasing 10.6% to total 4.6 million units. IDC forecasts YoY growth for 2014 overall at 1.6%, although demand is expected to remain close to flat for the years 2015 and beyond.
