Globally, the PC has seen its worst days. Things are not any better in certain regions as well as the latest report from the International Data Corporation (IDC) shows.
In the Middle East and Africa region (MEA), PC shipments dropped by 28.7% year on year to register disappointing figures for the third quarter in a row in Q4 2015. Both desktop computers and notebooks experienced sharp drops in shipment numbers with the former seeing a 29.4% drop YoY while the latter’s shipments plummeted by 28.2% slump YoY.
Overall, HP, Lenovo, Dell, Acer and Asus are the top five biggest PC vendors in the region. HP, which saw its shipments to the region drop by 27.4% managed to fight off Chinese PC maker Lenovo which also saw its shipments reduce by 29.9% Year on Year. American hardware giant Dell’s shipments dropped slightly (by 8.7%) enabling it to hold on to its position as the third biggest PC vendor in the region.
Combined, HP, Lenovo and Dell account for almost 70% of the PC shipments made to the region in Q4 2015 for commercial purposes.
Taiwanese firm Acer managed to capitalize on compatriot Asus’ misfortunes (its shipments went down by a massive 42.9% compared to a similar time last year) to become the fourth largest PC vendor in the region.
Reasons for the drop in PC shipments across all the top 5 vendors in the region are varied. Some of those cited include the strengthening of the US dollar and volatile fluctuations of local currencies, security concerns, the drop in oil prices and high levels of political instability and economic uncertainty.
