Notebook shipments more than double in the Middle East and Africa in Q2 2005, says IDC

But notebooks stole the show, with unit shipments soaring by more than 108% compared to the second quarter of 2004. Desktops and x86 servers also had solid shipment gains of 23.5% and 13.4%, respectively. In Saudi Arabia and Turkey, notebooks already make up close to 50% of total PC shipments. In the UAE, they already outsell desktops.

"These high numbers are great for vendors but they need to be kept in perspective," says Tomas Oupicky, Senior Analyst, IDC CEMA's Systems Group. "The second quarter is always a big one for the region, especially in the Middle East. While we expect the market to remain on a path of healthy growth - especially in the notebook segment - it probably won't be quite so dramatic in the next few quarters."

The two countries with the largest PC markets in the region in Q2, Turkey and South Africa, accounted for just over a third of total shipments. They also represented the two fastest growing country markets overall. When looking exclusively at notebooks, however, the Egyptian market ranked first, with shipments shooting up by a factor of 4.3, though it did start from a low base. Turkey was the second-fastest growing notebook market and Saudi Arabia third.

"Education rollouts and government modernizations projects will continue to play an important role in PC market development in the Middle East and Africa," says Oupicky. "This will be particularly true in the underserved markets in the Levant and North Africa, where international vendors will need to have solid local partnerships to get some of this business."

IDC's PC Quarterly Tracker delivers timely intelligence and an inclusive database that details changes and trends in the highly competitive MEA (Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Rest of Africa, and Rest of Middle East) PC markets. The tracker enables users to view data by volume, value, country, year, quarter, vendor, brand, processor brand, and channel. It provides comprehensive analysis of the region's PC markets. It also includes easy-to-read summaries that breakdown volume and value by form factor, vendor, and end-user segment.