Dubai
The UAE PC market suffered a 13.76 per cent fall in sales as vendors were focusing more on tablets and smartphones in the first quarter of this year.
The total PC (laptop and desktop) sales in the first quarter stood at 478,140 units compared to 554,449 during the same period last year.
“Although the top three vendors (HP, Dell and Lenovo) saw a modest year-on-year growth in the quarter, this couldn’t prevent the market from declining as most of the other vendors experienced a yearly decline” Victoria Mendes, a research analyst at International Data Corporation (IDC), told Gulf News.
According to IDC, the laptop market suffered the most with a 14.57 per cent fall while the desktop market fell by 10.44 per cent.
“A number of PC vendors are expected to shift more focus towards tablets as well as newer PC product categories like the ultra-slim notebooks and convertible notebooks in order to lessen, if not neutralise, their losses from the declining traditional PC market,” she added.
During the same period, the tablet market rose by 41.87 per cent.
“When the market is falling, HP has grown 13.3 per cent in the first quarter,” said Narayanan Venkataraman, PC category manager for printing and personal systems at HP Middle East.
Even though HP lost its number one ranking globally to Lenovo, HP is still the number one in the UAE.
Venkataraman said the main reason is the combination of multiple things. A strong product offering on the commercial side with new laptops and desktops, and also coming out with new form factors helped us win consumer side also.
HP expects the second quarter to be flat compared to the first quarter.
“With limited tablet portfolio on the consumer space, we have made inroads. Our major strength lies in the commercial side. Convertible tablets are gaining traction,” he said.
Sony has exited the PC business by selling its PC division, which produces notebooks under the Vaio brand, to buyout firm Japan Industrial Partners and Samsung has leaped out of the volume game.
The PC market is expected to continue its free fall in the second quarter also but in the third quarter, it is expected to register a small spike due to GItex shipments.
The long–term trend for the PC market is still negative for a foreseeable future.
In 2013, 372,050 units of desktops, 1.66 million notebooks and 1.46 million were sold in the UAE.
“The UAE PC market is expected to suffer at the hands of a very rapidly growing tablet market in 2014,” Mendes said.
Narayanan said that tablet market competition is very brutal. Tablets from unbranded vendors are eating into the branded tablet sales in the entry level. Going forward, he said that HP expects the consumers to look for the brand to support quality, one of the key criteria.
Unbranded tablet manufacturers occupied around 30 per cent market share in the first quarter volume.
Some vendors are offering low-cost tablets for as low as Dh199 and Dh299 and many are bundling it as freebies.
The huge growth in tablets was mainly driven by “unbranded manufacturers initially” due to the “price factor”, but we are entering a new phase where consumers will prefer quality products than the price factor.
Even though the tablet market registered a strong growth in the first quarter, it is expected to register a fall of around two per cent in the second quarter.
According to IDC, the tablet market is expected to see a year-on-year growth of 19.4 per cent for the full year.
