Gulf's PC shipments soar 78% in third quarter

Dubai: Driven by unabated demand for portable systems across the region, PC sales in the Gulf states recorded robust growth in the third quarter of 2008.

Total computer shipments (desktops and notebooks) in third quarter stood at about 1.25 million units, a year-on-year growth of 78 per cent when compared with 702,085 units in third quarter of 2007 with a total value of $1.1 billion (Dh4.04 billion).

According to International Data Corporation (IDC), Qatar was the fastest-growing market with a year-on-year growth of 103.38 per cent followed by the UAE with 88 per cent, Saudi Arabia with 76.14 per cent, Oman with 56.88 per cent, Bahrain with 50.85 per cent and Kuwait with 43.33 per cent.

Laptops recorded the fastest growth. In the third quarter, total shipments grew more than 95 per cent year-on-year to 981,882 units.

"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 and drove a solid growth of notebook sales," Omar Shihab, Research Manager, PCs and Systems, IDC Middle East and Africa, said.

The UAE was the leader in the notebooks segment with 529,865 units, followed by Saudi Arabia with 323,057, Kuwait with 65,771, Qatar with 34,785, Bahrain with 14,592 and Oman with 13,812 units.

UAE was the leader in the desktop market with 106,551 units followed by Saudi Arabia with 88,442, Kuwait with 24,893, Qatar with 19,620, Oman with 19,447 and Bahrain with 13,709 units.

In Oman desktops shipments outpaced laptops.

Mini-notebooks, also known as netbooks or second PC, contributed 10 per cent of the notebook sales. Total shipments into the region during the period stood at 100,000 units.

"Asus kicked off netbooks into the region in the second quarter, but it was Acer which stole the limelight in the third quarter. It was also Acer's biggest quarter for netbook sales. They sold more units than Asus," Rami Barbarawi, senior research analyst, IDC Middle East and Africa, said.

He said netbook sales in the fourth quarter are expected to be in line with the third quarter.

"For the fourth quarter, we expect around 1.2 million PCs to be shipped with a value of around $1 billion. There is still a lot of room for growth in notebook segment," Barbarawi said.

Caution ahead

Shihab said the global outlook was not positive: "We expect distributors and channels to be very cautious due to the economic slowdown. The effect is going to be felt in 2009 and we are in the middle of revising our forecasts for the next few quarters. We are feeling a slowdown now, but we don't have a view yet." He added that for 2008, he expected around 4.5 million PCs to be sold in the Gulf market which is in line with IDC's forecast.

"We have made major revisions in other parts of the Middle East, but not in the Gulf market. A huge impact will be felt in Turkey." he said.