Emerging markets, which include the Middle East, Africa, China, Far East and Latin America, will play a key role in the growth of notebook PC sales in the coming five years. Emerging markets are forecast to record a compound annual growth rate of 21 percent by 2015, according to recent data published by the research firm, IDC.
The notebook industry in the Middle East has evolved considerably over the past few years. More consumers in the region now own a portable computing device as the need for connectivity and productivity on the go increases. It is no surprise then that with its diverse line-up of notebooks, Samsung Gulf Electronics has recorded a solid 65 percent growth in the first half of the year across the GCC.
“Consumers in the UAE are keen on purchasing unique notebooks that have a thin-and-light form-factor, long battery life and which deliver the highest performance. To sustain this demand, Samsung introduced a wide variety of mid-range and premium notebooks this year such as the Series 3 300V and Series 9,” said Raj Varma, General Manager of IT Sales Group at Samsung Gulf Electronics.
“While notebooks such as the 300V drive volume sales, our premium notebooks are growing in popularity too as they offer both a comprehensive mobile computing experience and an attractive premium packaging design. UAE is a unique market due to its diverse consumer needs and we expect notebook sales in the country to continue increasing year-on-year due to an upward trend in desktop replacement,” Varma, added.
Sales in the emerging markets including the Middle East have already surpassed the mature markets. By 2015, this gap is poised to grow even larger as emerging markets are projected to ship 236 million notebooks according to figures by IDC. The benefiter of this robust growth will ultimately be the consumers as they will gain access to the most technologically advanced and competitive notebooks by the top vendors.