Middle East & Africa Sees Highest Volume of Personal Computing Devices Shipped into the Region for Almost Five Years

The Middle East and Africa (MEA) personal computing devices (PCD) market, which is made up of desktops, notebooks, workstations, and tablets, experienced year-on-year growth of 7.3% in the third quarter of 2021 (Q3 2021), according to the latest industry analysis conducted by International Data Corporation (IDC).

The global technology research and consulting firm’s newly updated Worldwide Quarterly PCD Tracker shows that shipments across the region reached 6.2 million units in Q3 2021.

“This was the highest volume of PCD shipments the region has witnessed in almost five years, despite ongoing supply shortages meaning vendors are still unable to completely fulfil demand,” says Fouad Charakla, IDC’s senior research manager for client devices in the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa. “Two massive education projects were delivered into the region — one each in Egypt and South Africa — which acted as key market drivers.

“In addition, large-scale PCD deliveries were also made into the education sectors of the UAE and Ghana, which also contributed to the overall growth. At the same time, commercial PCD shipments experienced a significant increase as vendors were able to fulfil backlogs that they could not fulfil earlier due to supply constraints. On the flip side, however, consumer PCD shipments into the region suffered a considerable decline with demand from home users slowing down, coupled with vendors prioritizing supply towards commercial end users.”

In the PC segment, HP regained top position, while Lenovo placed second and Dell finished third.

In the tablet space, Samsung maintained top position, while Apple climbed to second place and Lenovo ranked third.