Dubai: Growth in mobile devices has again dealt a major blow to the Middle East and Africa PC market in the third quarter, particularly across the consumer segment.

Portable PCs declined at a faster rate than the overall market by 17.8 per cent year on year to 2.5 million units, out of the total 4.2 million units shipped into the region in the third quarter.

The overall shipments declined by 15 per cent year on year while desktops declined 10.4 per cent year on year to a total of 1.7 million units.

“Overall, the demand for PCs has fallen in the region but the demand from the commercial side is still there. The tablet is making a big penetration in the consumer segment,” Narayanan Venkataraman, PC Category Manager, Printing and Personal Systems at HP Middle East, told Gulf News.

The regional tablet market grew 181.8 per cent year on year to reach 3.2 million units. Although Apple’s proprietary operating system, iOS, and Windows OS were contributors to the growth, the major contribution came without a doubt from the Android operating system, with a total of 2.39 million Android units shipped in the quarter.

Largest declines

“We have witnessed a steady decline in the PC market as more and more people shift toward mobile devices, ranging from portable PCs to tablets and smartphones,” said Adriana Rangel, research director for systems and infrastructure solutions at International Data Corporation (IDC) Middle East, Africa, and Turkey, in a emailed statement.

Rangel said the largest declines in PC shipments across the region have been in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey. While the UAE has seen a steady decline, the decrease in shipments has not impacted the market to any great extent.

Venkataraman said that the demand for ultrabooks, laptops which are thin and light, has made a good progress over last year.

According to IDC stats, HP maintained leadership of the overall regional market in the quarter. After suffering year-on-year declines for two consecutive quarters, the vendor finally managed to post positive growth of 7.4 per cent during the third quarter.

Lenovo continued to attain the fastest growth rate among the vendors, with its shipments increasing 25.1 per cent year on year, enabling it to claim the number-two position in the market. Dell dropped to third place after suffering an overall year-on-year decline in shipments of 16.4 per cent on the back of a significantly steeper fall in the consumer space.

Weaker presence

Toshiba and Acer ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, with declines of 30.5 per cent and 33.4 per cent year on year. Both vendors have a significantly weaker presence in the commercial segment than the top three vendors.

In the tablet space, Samsung claimed the region’s top spot for the first time by overtaking Apple in the quarter to reach 775,000 units compared to Apple’s 693,000 units. Apple’s growth continues to be the slowest of the major tablet vendors

Lenovo held the third spot with 206,000 shipments, followed by Acer with 98,000 units.

“Though iOS continues to lose share in the region, the launch of the iPad Air and iPad Mini with Retina display should help the vendor grow in terms of units shipped over the forecast period,” Fouad R. Charakla, research manager at IDC, said in an emailed statement.

“The tablet is making a big penetration in the consumer segment. HP has a limited offering in the tablet segment as of the third quarter. So we are still in an infancy state. Our tablet portfolio will make big inroads next year,” Venkataraman said.