Shipments of PCs to Africa and the Media East slumped by 9,6% in the first quarter of 2015, new research by International Data Corp (IDC) shows.
Shipments to the region totalled 4,3m units in the first three months of the year. Portable PC shipments declined by 9,4% to 2,7m units, while desktop shipments fell by 10% to 1,6m units.
The fall is because of currency fluctuations in a number of the region’s key markets and ongoing instability in global oil prices, IDC said.
“Currency fluctuations were one of the main causes of the market’s decline slowdown, with key markets such as Nigeria, Turkey, Egypt and Algeria all being hit,” said Fouad Charakla, research manager for personal computing, systems, and infrastructure solutions at IDC.
“Low oil prices have also had a negative impact on almost all parts of the region, with the extent varying from country to country.”
The top three vendor positions in the region remained unchanged, with each of the top three PC makers experiencing annual growth despite the market’s significant overall decline.
Hewlett-Packard continued to lead in terms of market share, growing by 6,5% year on year, while Lenovo maintained second position with growth of 5,3%. Third-placed Dell’s shipments were up by 3,5% over the same period, while fourth-placed Toshiba suffered a massive slump of 34,3%, IDC said. Rounding out the top five, Asus posted a year-on-year decline of 7,2%.
“It should be noted that the segment of market players to suffer the most were local desktop assemblers, as they faced stiff competition from multinational PC brands and, more importantly, the refurbished PC market in many parts of the region,” the research firm said.
For 2015 as a whole, IDC expects the Africa and Middle East PC market to decline by 4,8% year on year to total 17,3m units.
“Aside from currency fluctuations, one of the most significant market inhibitors will be the high PC inventory levels held by the region’s channels,” said Charakla. “While this inhibitor was primarily only felt in Turkey during the first quarter of 2015, the impact is now expected to extend to many other parts of the region, including the United Arab Emirates and the ‘rest of Middle East’ sub-region.”
In the longer run, IDC expects the region’s PC market to remain almost flat between 2015 and 2019. However, there will be a gradual shift in the weight of demand from consumers to the commercial segment as a growing proportion of home users switch from PCs to tablets and smartphones and commercial end users maintain their loyalty towards PCs. — © 2015 NewsCentral Media
