According toIDC, the PC market for the Middle East and Africa region suffered a decline in shipments during the last quarter of 2011, despite a healthy growth in Saudi Arabia and UAE. The overall market from falling 6.7% on Q4 2010 levels to total 5.1 million units.
The market saw declines across the technology spectrum, with desktop shipments decreasing 12.1% year on year to 1.8 million units and shipments of notebooks shrinking 3.4% over the same period to 3.3 million units, while the situation in Turkey, Egypt, and Nigeria was particularly bleak.
“The weakening of Turkey’s currency continued to negatively impact shipments into the country during the final quarter of last year, while political instability in Egypt and Nigeria inhibited growth for the overall African region. However, the stellar performance of strong growth markets such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, as well as some other smaller countries across the MEA region, prevented the overall PC market from slumping to alarming levels.” said Fouad Charakla, a senior research analyst at IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey.
