Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Gulf News

Dubai: Driven by continuing demand for portable systems across the region, PC sales in the Gulf states recorded strong growth in 2006.

Total computer shipments (desktop and notebook) rose 35 per cent compared to last year, reaching 2.14 million units from 1.58 million units in 2005.

Click here to see the PC sales in the Gulf (pdf)

UAE was the fastest growing market with growth of 46.7 per cent year-on-year followed by Qatar with 43.8 per cent, Kuwait with 32 per cent, Saudi Arabia with 26.5 per cent, Bahrain with 24.5 per cent and Oman with 21 per cent, according to independent research firm IDC.

Laptops recorded the fastest growth of 61 per cent year-on-year to 1.25 million units in 2006 from 778,919 units in 2005.

Intense competition

Qatar was the leader in notebook segment growing at 81.5 per cent year-on-year, followed by UAE with 64.6 per cent, Kuwait with 62.3 per cent, Bahrain 58.6 per cent, Saudi Arabia with 56.1 per cent and Oman with 54.1 per cent. Notebooks in Kuwait for the first time have surpassed desktops in 2006.

Desktop shipments grew 9.81 per cent year-on-year to 883,003 units in 2006 from 804,103 units in 2005.

Oman was the leader in the desktop market, growing at 25.4 per cent year-on-year, followed by UAE with 22.2 per cent, Bahrain with 11.1 per cent, Oman with 10.8 per cent, Kuwait with 10.6 per cent.

Saudi Arabia was the lone market with 1.3 per cent negative growth. As a result, notebooks have outpaced desktop volumes across most countries in the region.

All the top vendors recorded strong growth in the region.

"Booming notebook sales across the entire region continued to act as the primary growth driver for most vendors. Consumers' demand for portables remained very strong, driven by an extensive product offering, while intense competition between the players maintained price points at very aggressive levels drove a solid growth of notebook sales," Omar Shihab, Research Manager, PCs and Systems, IDC Middle East and Africa.

Middle East contributed to just above one per cent of the global PC market in 2006.

"Small and home offices and small and medium-sized businesses in particular invested heavily in portables and will continue to do so, especially as wireless technology makes mobility a growing reality," says Omar.

Strong economy

"This allowed governments to increase spending on personal computers and on IT infrastructure in general. This trend should continue in the future as the six GCC countries remain under-penetrated in terms of PCs," he said.

Overall, IDC anticipates that the economies of GCC countries will stay strong. Demand for PCs will continue to be strong as more projects within various segments continue to roll in.

In the UAE, top two vendors HP and Acer recorded 25.6 per cent and 20.5 per cent market share in 2006.

The demand for bulky machines will continue to slowly grow but at a declining rate as portable machines become quicker and more efficient.

"Notebooks were the fastest growing form factor in the Emirates due to large uptake by small office and home users (SoHo) and small and medium enterprises (SME)," says Omar.

He says education sector drove the desktop market. There were other important sectors also - oil and gas, telecommunications, and banking and financial sectors - all buoyed the desktop market.

For all of 2006, worldwide PC shipments reached 231.3 million with a growth of 10 per cent compared to growth of 16 per cent in 2005.

By Naushad K. Cherrayil

Gulf News 2007. All rights reserved.