PC Shipments to the Middle East, Türkiye, and Africa See Growth, with AI-Enabled PCs Set to Shake Up the Market

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The Middle East, Türkiye, and Africa (META) personal computing devices (PCD) market, which is made up of desktops, notebooks, and workstations, continued to exceed expectations in Q1 2024 with shipments increasing 12.2% year on year (YoY) to total 3.53 million units. That's according to the latest industry analysis conducted by International Data Corporation (IDC), with the firm's newly updated Worldwide Quarterly PCD Tracker showing that the Middle East and Türkiye saw growth of 16.2% YoY, while shipments to Africa increased 3.5%.

Vendors continued to push shipments into the META region as they sought to stimulate consumer demand, exploit new opportunities, and fulfill ongoing contracts, with Q1 2024 representing the third consecutive quarter where PCD shipments have topped 3.5 million units. As per IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PCD Tracker, the top six PCD vendors in the META region by unit market share in Q1 2024 were HP Inc. (24.5%), Lenovo (24.5%), and Dell Technologies (14.2%), ASUS (9.3%), Apple (5.0%), and Acer Group (3.8%).

"The Middle East continues to draw shipments as vendors seek new market opportunities," says Isaac T. Ngatia, an analyst at IDC. "Both the commercial and consumer segments remained strong across the META region in Q1 2024, returning YoY growth of 12.4% and 12.1%, respectively. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries remain a particular focal point for vendors, while the wider Middle East continues to provide pockets of opportunities despite ongoing geopolitical issues."

The average selling price (ASP) for personal computing devices remained relatively flat in Q1 2024, up by just 0.8% YoY but down by 1.3% on the previous quarter. This implies that vendors have tried to maintain their price points to drive demand. However, this is expected to change in the second half of the year as the market enters a new cycle with the introduction of PCs capable of running on-device AI capabilities.

"In the last few weeks, we have witnessed various industry events where players unveiled devices with varied onboard AI capabilities," says Ngatia. "The market has been abuzz with strong interest in the newly launched Microsoft Copilot and animated discussions about the potential of different processor types (i.e., CPUs, GPUs, NPUs). It seems the hype around AI-enabled PCs is finally bearing fruit, driving increasing levels of awareness and interest across the region."

AI-enabled PCs are forecast to account for around 10% of all PCD shipments to the META region this year. However, IDC does not expect to see a drastic increase in overall PCD shipments for 2024 as a whole, with the outlook remaining relatively stable. IDC's latest forecast indicates that the META region will see a total of 13.55 million PCD units shipped in 2024 (versus the previous forecast of 13.51 million).

"It is important to note that vendors are not opening up a new market, just that many of their shipments going forward will have AI capabilities," says Ngatia. "These will include attractive features such as live captioning, Recall for Windows 11, and even copilots to help users play Minecraft, but the devices are not coming to address a new segment or market."