Global PC sales in QI 2011 reduced by about 81 million units. This is about 0.3% year-year with 2010, IHS iSuppli reports. The conclusion is that as more tablets are sold, lesser PCs are sold.
Notice that in East Africa, PC sales jumped up, according to IDC as we reported. Of course, the trend seen by IHS is mainly in the developing world where diffusion and penetration of tablet is high and PC seems to be getting into a saturation mode. Markets like East Africa are still getting their PCs as the economy expands and purchasing power improves.
The PC market in East Africa strongly expanded in the first quarter of 2011, even as the worldwide PC market contracted and the pan-African market almost stagnated, according to a recent report by market research company IDC. While global PC shipments declined 3.2% year on year during the first three months of 2011 and the overall African PC market grew a marginal 1%, East Africa (including Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Uganda) recorded a massive 76% growth in PC shipments. IDC expects that the East African PC market will further grow by about 35–45% in 2011 before cooling off in 2012.
When you take the numbers from iSuppli, quarter to quarter, PC shipments drop 12% from Q4 2010 to Q1 2011.
Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 16 (Feb 10 – May 3, 2025) opens registrations; register today for early bird discounts.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and invest in Africa’s finest startups here.
IHS notes that “The increasing momentum of the media tablet market, led by the iPad, is creating a difficult environment for the PC industry,” . Also, “All the attention surrounding tablets contributed to weak consumer demand for PCs in the first quarter.”
IHS also noted that though PC sales in the corporate was down, the consumer market went up. This can explain why East Africa was up as the consumer market lifted it. People are just getting their computers.
In Q1 2011, HP remains #1 vendor with 18.9% market share. Year to year, it lost 2.1%. This is related to competition in the market. Dell comes #2, at 12.9%, while Acer was #3. Lenovo followed with Toshiba rounding up the top five brands.
