Tablet sales plunge, while PCs show healthy growth

Shipments of personal computing devices (PCDs) — desktops, notebooks, workstations and tablets — in Africa and the Middle East declined by 5.3% year on year in the first quarter of 2018, according to new research from International Data Corp.

IDC’s quarterly PCD tracker shows only 5.7m units were shipped in the region in the three-month period, the lowest quarterly volume recorded in more than six years. However, the poor numbers are mainly due to plunging demand for tablet computers — PC shipments recorded healthy year-on-year growth.

“The overall market decline stemmed from falling demand for tablets,” said IDC regional senior research manager for client devices Fouad Charakla in a statement. “These devices are falling out of favour across the region, with the biggest year-on-year decline seen in Kenya, where a massive delivery for the education section sector that took place in the first quarter of 2017 was not repeated.”

South Africa’s overall PCD market performed better than expected, with shipments into the country growing year on year. This was spurred by the country’s improved economic situation and the strengthening of the local currency against the US dollar, making it cheaper for PCs to be imported, said Charakla. February’s announcement of a 1% increase in the VAT rate encouraged market players to ramp up their shipments into the country ahead of its implementation on 1 April.

Another area of growth is gaming PCs, which continue to act as a driver for the overall region’s PCD market. “The higher-than-average price points and profit margins associated with gaming PCs is maintaining strong interest among market players in these devices,” said Charakla.

In the PC market, all the top five vendors maintained their respective positions in terms of market share when compared to the corresponding quarter of 2017. HP achieved significant growth in terms of market share to maintain its lead by a significant margin (31.5% compared to 26.9% a year ago).

Lenovo was second at 19.3%, followed by Dell (14.9%) and Asus (8.2%).

In tablets, Samsung remained the clear leader and gained market share (growing from 19% a year ago to 21.2%). Lenovo (10.6%) climbed to second position in the market, overtaking both Apple (10.3%) and Huawei (10.2%).  — © 2018 NewsCentral Media