MEA personal computing devices market to suffer year-on-year decline in shipments, says IDC

T he Middle East and Africa (MEA) personal computing devices (PCD) market, which is made up of desktops, notebooks, workstations and tablets, is expected to suffer a year-on-year decline in shipments of 8.3% in shipments for the final quarter of 2021, according to industry analysis conducted by International Data Corporation (IDC). The global technology research and consulting firm’s latest Quarterly PCD Tracker shows that a total of 5.6 million units will be shipped across the region in Q4 2021.

“The primary reason for the year-on-year decline is the strong performance seen in some key markets during the corresponding quarter of 2020,” says Fouad Charakla, IDC’s senior research manager for client devices in the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa. “The final quarter of last year saw a number of massive education deals and a spike in consumer device shipments, neither of which were repeated in Q4 2021.

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Additionally, the depreciation of the Turkish lira to historic lows against the U.S. dollar, making PCDs even more expensive for end users in the country, has caused a further slowdown of shipments into Turkey, which is one of the region’s major PCD markets.

“A supply shortage of integrated circuits has had a negative impact on PCD shipments for Q4 2021, and this shortage is expected to persist for at least three more quarters. With vendors prioritizing commercial shipments for better profitability, consumer shipments are expected to bear the brunt of this supply shortage. From a product category perspective, desktop and notebook shipments combined will record a gentle year-on-year increase for Q4 2021, while tablet shipments will decline dramatically.”