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Cape Town - The bottom has fallen out of the PC market in the Middle East and Africa owing to currency fluctuations and resource price instability, a survey has found.
According to market tracker International Data Corporation (IDC), the PC market declined by 9.6% in the first three months of this year, compared with 2014.
"Currency fluctuations were one of the main causes of the market's decline slowdown, with key markets such as Nigeria, Turkey, Egypt, and Algeria all being hit," said Fouad Charakla, research manager for personal computing, systems, and infrastructure solutions at IDC.
The desktop market declined 10% to 1.6 million units, while portable machines such as laptops sank 9.4% to 2.7 million units.
The market had given indications of a small return to growth, but the continued volatility of resources as well other factors had an impact, said the IDC.
"Low oil prices have also had a negative impact on almost all parts of the region, with the extent varying from country to country. Inventory pile-ups from the previous quarter also caused the Turkey market to decline faster year on year, while ongoing political and social unrest in the 'Rest of Middle East' sub-region compounded the decline for MEA as a whole," Charakla said.
HP led the sector with growth of 6.5%, followed by Lenovo (5.3%) and Dell (3.5%), but fourth place Toshiba bled, losing 34.3% and Asus declined 7.2% to make up the top five.
The results indicate that for the whole of 2015, the PC market in the region will decline by 4.8% to 17 million units, said the IDC.
Check out the interactive IDC chart here:
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