Computer market likely to see 4.9% fall in sales

Dubai: Even though computer sales are expected to fall in the UAE this year, some retailers and vendors are using Gitex Shopper as a stepping stone to boost sales and sell off old models as newer ones are expected in June.

“Nearly 50,000 laptop units were sold at the main Gitex Shopper held in October. HP sold around 40 per cent of the total units. This year we expect around 25,000 units to be sold totally at the four-day event and keep 40 per cent market share,” said Salim Ziade, general manager of HP’s Printing and Personal Systems Group in the Middle East.

According to Fouad Rafiq Charakla, Research Manager at IDC, the UAE computer market is expected to see a decline for a foreseeable future and this year is no different.

“The PC market is heading for a fall for the first time this year as the demand for tablets booms. The erosion of mini-notebooks is a key contributor towards this slowdown,” said Charakla.

He said that around 135,000 mini-notebooks were shipped into the UAE last year but this year only around 22,000 units are expected to be shipped.

Total PC shipments (notebooks, desktops, mini-notebooks, ultra-slim notebooks) into the UAE is expected to be 2.7 million units this year, registering a fall of 4.9 per cent from 2.84 million units last year.

“Notebook shipments will fall by 5.9 per cent while desktop shipments will rise by 1.3 per cent this year,” said Charakla.

Globally, PC market is seeing a second consecutive decline this year but IDC foresees that the global industry will return to positive growth between 2014 and 2017.

“We have sold out Windows 7 laptops and we will be trying to sell more of non-touch Windows 8 laptops with bundled offers,” Neelesh Bhatnagar, CEO of Emax, said, and added that Emax will be having a separate clearance counter where customers can get up to 70 per cent discount.

Some retailers are taking back old laptops for a price and offering new laptops with bundled offers.

Out of the total portable computers to be shipped into the UAE, Charakla said that ultra-slim notebooks share was 3.3 per cent last year and this is expected to grow to 16 per cent for 2013.

“Last year, the average price of ultra-slim notebooks shipped into the UAE region was $1,059 (Dh3,890). We expect to see a greater adoption of lower-priced ultra-slim notebooks in coming years, bringing down the average price to $878 this year,” Charakla said.

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What are ultra-slim notebooks?

Ultra-slim notebook is the term defined by Intel. They are PCs which have thickness of less than 2.1cm and have solid state drives (SSD) to boot faster and less heavy than normal hard disk drives. They resemble MacBook Air. They are designed to be less heavy and have better battery life. Due to the size, they don’t have optical disk drives and some don’t have Ethernet ports. They have ultra-low-voltage processors to reduce battery consumption.