Tablets and smart phones will continue to eat further into the Gulf PC shipments in the fourth quarter as consumers are spending less on personal computers coupled with political instability in the region.
PC shipments for the fourth quarter are expected to be 1.56 million units, a decline of 0.9 per cent compared to 1.57 million units during the same quarter last year.
“Vendors and channels were stuck with high levels of inventory from the first half of this year due to continuously sluggish demand by end users,” Fouad Rafiq Charakla, research manager at IDC, told in an exclusive with Gulf News.
The UAE is the only country in the Gulf expected to register a year-on-year growth of 10 per cent to 683,725 units in the fourth quarter.
The market value in the fourth quarter is expected to be $1.06 million, a decline of 4.5 per cent compared to $1.11 million during the same period last year.
Average selling price for laptops in the fourth quarter is expected to be $683 compared to $669 during the same period last year while for desktops, average selling price to be $664 in fourth quarter compared to $636 during the same period last year.
“We are seeing a strong shift to tablets, especially in Saudi Arabia than UAE. We are facing tough market conditions in the Kingdom,” Amin Mortajawi, vice-president for Acer Middle East and Africa, said.
He said that despite the growth in tablets, there is still a market for computers in the region.
A lot of education deals are expected to materialize for tablets in the coming quarters. The third quarter of this year also saw a large delivery of tablets that took place in the education sector of UAE.
“The launch of Windows 8 is bringing a large number of new models and will support the emergence of new form factors,” Denzil D’Souza, Business Head for Notebooks, Samsung Gulf Electronics, said.
In the third quarter, total shipments declined by 3.8 per cent year on year to 1.51 million units compared to 1.57 million units during the same period last year.
“It was yet another slow quarter for ultra-slim notebooks which only managed a 10 per cent share of total portables in the third quarter in the Gulf,” he said.
In the third quarter, the market value stood at $1 billion compared to $1.07 billion during the same period last year.
