Demand from large organizations and extensive notebook adoption fuel steep PC market growth in the Gulf States, says IDC

According to the latest study from IDC, expansion was driven by strong demand for notebooks as well as by ongoing and new IT infrastructure deployments in major vertical markets, such as the government, oil and gas, banking and insurance, and telecommunications, as well as by heightened demand from small and medium-size enterprises and the SOHO segment.

The Gulf States market (comprising the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman) was dominated by international players, with only one of the top ten vendors being a local vendor. The top three vendors were HP, Acer, and Dell, whose combined market share reached almost two thirds of total shipments.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia continued to make up the largest share of PC shipments in the region. The two markets were approximately of the same size and together represented over 81% of total PC shipments in the GCC in 2006. The third largest, Kuwait, constituted just one tenth of the two biggest markets combined.

Notebooks were again the most dynamic form factor last year, with shipments rocketing up 61.0% year-on-year and comprising 57.5% unit share of the market. Desktop shipments also continued to grow in 2006, although at a much slower pace (at less than 10%) and made up 40.5% share of the market. Shipments of x86 servers grew 11.0% year-on-year in 2006, as more SMBs purchased these machines and large and very large businesses renewed their existing server infrastructure as part of regular replacement cycles.

IDC expects the Gulf PC market to expand at an average annual rate of over 16% in volume over the next five years. 'Continued economic growth will fuel expansion in the Gulf States PC market in the coming few years,' said Omar Shihab, Research Manager, IDC MEA. 'Uptake of notebook PCs, the rollout of numerous IT infrastructure projects, and PC renewal and upgrade cycles in the corporate and government sectors will also play a role.'

IDC's IDC' Gulf States Personal Computing 2007-2011 Forecast and 2006 Vendor Shares (IDC #ZJ03P) provides detailed analysis, conclusions, and forecasts regarding the dynamics of the Gulf States (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain) personal computer market. Based on information gathered from interviews with the leading IT companies (vendors, distributors, assemblers, system integrators, value-added resellers, and dealers) active in the region, the study is intended to provide an understanding of the changes and challenges facing the PC industry.