PC sales are down in the MEA region, but iPad sales are up slightly

The Middle East and Africa (MEA) personal computing device (PCD) market, which is made up of desktops, notebooks, workstations, and tablets, experienced a significant year-on-year decline of 13.0% during the first quarter of 2023, according to the latest industry analysis conducted by International Data Corporation (IDC). 

The global technology research and consulting firm’s newly updated Worldwide Quarterly PCD Tracker shows that shipments across the region totaled 5.2 million units in Q1 2023.

“Due to a slowdown in demand, primarily in the consumer and SMB segments, most channels in the region entered the first quarter of the year with high inventory levels,” says Fouad Charakla, IDC’s associate research director for client devices in the Middle East, Türkiye, and Africa. “This prevented them from placing new orders at the same volumes seen during the corresponding quarter of 2022.

“With the exception of Türkiye and Nigeria, every other market in the region — including the major markets of Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the UAE, Israel, and Egypt — experienced a year-on-year decline in shipments. In Türkiye, market players shipped aggressively to sell as many devices as possible before the upcoming elections make sales challenging, while in Nigeria, the key driver of growth was a massive government deal.”

From a product category perspective, PC shipments were down 21.5% year on year. The top 3 vendors each experienced sharp declines, although all maintained their positions in the market, with HP Inc., Lenovo, and Dell ranking first, second, and third, respectively.

The tablet market saw shipments increase 4.4% year on year. Samsung experienced very strong growth backed by a large deal that was secured by the vendor. Samsung continues to lead the market by a significant margin, with Apple and Huawei ranking second and third, respectively.

Apple now has 14.4% of the MEA tablet market, compared to Samsung’s 29%. The iPad maker had 14.3% of the region’s tablet market in the first quarter of 2022.