Middle East & Africa Notebook Shipments to grow 4% in 2021

That’s according to industry analysis conducted by International Data Corporation (IDC), with the global technology research and consulting firm’s latest Worldwide Quarterly PCD Tracker  showing that a total of 22.7 million units will be shipped across the region in 2021.

“The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which are still causing a large portion of end users to work and study from home, continue to drive demand for personal computing devices in the region. With more end users opting for mobility, this year will see the highest volume of notebooks shipped into the region since 2014.”

Fouad Charakla, IDC’s senior research manager for client devices in the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa

Due to an ongoing shortage in the supply of PC components, a large portion of notebook demand remains unfulfilled to date. Consequently, channel inventory for notebooks remains low in many parts of the region. Supply for these devices is expected to catch up with demand by the second half of 2021.

“Large-scale, government-backed initiatives in the education sector are under discussion in several countries across the region. Each of these projects will comprise almost entirely of mobile computing devices — namely notebooks and tablets.”

Fouad Charakla, IDC’s senior research manager for client devices in the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa

The desktop market will also experience some recovery in 2021 — after the sharp decline experienced in 2020 — as more commercial end users look to purchase these devices. Tablets, on the other hand, will experience a decline in 2021, primarily due to the fact that some of the massive education projects that were seen across the region in 2020 are unlikely to be repeated at the same magnitude in 2021.