Demand for personal computers (PCs) in the Middle East has surged, as remote work and online classes become the norm for many consumers, the latest figures from research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) showed.

From October to December 2020, about six million desktops, notebooks, workstations and tablets were shipped to the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region, making the last three months of the year one of the best-performing quarters of the last few years.

“Demand for personal computing devices remained strong across the MEA region, with end users still requiring these devices to work remotely or study from home,” said Fouad Charakla, IDC senior research manager for client devices in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa.

Each of the major markets in the region, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia and South Africa, experienced year-on-year growth as well.

Top brands

In the PC segment, Lenovo emerged as the most popular in the region, representing 24.9 percent of the market vendor shares, followed by HP Inc. (22.6 percent) and Dell (15.9 percent).

In the tablet category, Samsung topped the charts with a 30.7 percent share, followed by Lenovo (17.4 percent) and Huawei (10.1 percent).

Among the regions tracked by IDC, Turkey was the largest market for personal computing devices last year, having experienced the biggest growth year-on-year, almost doubling the shipments.

“The market’s recovery from the slowdown in consumer demand seen in Q4 2019 was the primary driver of this growth in Turkey. A massive education deal totalling more than 150,000 tablets was also delivered into the country, which further accelerated the market’s growth,” he said.

However, in other markets like Egypt and Kenya, shipments posted declines.

“[This is] primarily because these markets had witnessed massive education deals in Q4 2019 that were not repeated in Q4 2020,” said Fouad.

(Reporting by Cleofe Maceda; editing by Mily Chakrabarty)

Cleofe.maceda@refinitiv.com

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