According to the latest insights from International Data Corporation (IDC), personal computing devices (PCD) market, in the Middle East and Africa region, experienced a decline of -8.8% year on year in Q1 2017, falling to around 6 million units for the quarter, the lowest levels recorded since Q4 2011.
The market’s slump was primarily rooted in the fall in demand for traditional desktops which fell by 25.3% in sales and slate tablets whose shipments suffered a year-on-year decline of 16.9%. Surprisingly, detachable tablets experienced a growth of 102.5% over the same period. Notebook shipments were also up in Q1 2017, with units increasing 5.9% year on year.
IDC says that the decline in demand for slate tablets can be attributed to the increasing shift among home users to the use of smartphones for tasks previously performed on tablets. The report also indicates that the ongoing transition towards laptops (notebooks) and detachable tablets has led to the decline in traditional desktop demand.
IDC says that Kenya’s laptop project (or is it tablets?) for schools has served as the biggest driver of detachable tablet and notebooks shipments in the region.
IDC also released vendor rankings for Q1 2017. All of the top five vendors maintained their positions when compared to the previous quarter. All vendors saw a slight growth this in terms of market share, apart from Acer which suffered a drastic decline in shipments as a result of a significant slowdown in Turkey and several parts of Africa.
| Vendor | Q1 2016 | Q1 2017 |
|---|---|---|
| HP | 26.8% | 26.9% |
| Lenovo | 18.2% | 18.8% |
| Dell | 15.2% | 16.4% |
| ASUS | 7.5% | 8.6% |
| Acer | 7.7% | 4.8% |
| Others | 24.6% | 24.5% |
In the tablet space, Samsung continued to lead in terms of market share in Q1 2017, while Apple and Huawei climbed up into second and third positions, respectively.
| Vendor | Q1 2016 | Q1 2017 |
|---|---|---|
| Samsung | 21.2% | 19.0% |
| Apple | 11.5% | 9.6% |
| Huawei | 6.9% | 9.0% |
| Lenovo | 12.3% | 8.8% |
| i-Life | 2.9% | 6.6% |
| Others | 45.2% | 47.1% |
IDC expects the MEA PCD market to experience a year-on-year decline of 8.2% for 2017 as a whole. This will correspond to a total of 24 million shipments for the year, which is the lowest annual volumes recorded since 2011. However, they note that the growing demand for detachable tablets, ultraslim notebooks, all-in-ones, and convertible notebooks will help to keep the overall PCD market afloat.
