The Middle East and Africa (MEA) tablet market bucked the global trend to record 77.3% year-on-year growth in shipments during the first quarter of 2014, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC).<\/p>\n
The market research firm said that shipments reached a total of 4 million units in Q1 2014, with much of the growth driven by the strong performance of the consumer segment.<\/p>\n
“Most other regions around the world experienced a year-on-year slowdown in growth during Q1 2014, or even an overall decline,” said Adriana Rangel, research director at IDC.<\/p>\n
“But the MEA tablet market continues to expand tremendously, a trend that can primarily be attributed to the additional focus that vendors have placed on this region due to numerous country markets not reaching their full potential, particularly in Africa.”<\/p>\n
The IDC noted that Samsung was particularly active on the marketing front, launching numerous new models that helped it retain top spot in the market with a total volume of 974,600 units for the quarter.<\/p>\n
Apple held on to second position with 751,934 units, while General Mobile was a new entrant at position three, shipping 352,245 units for the quarter thanks to a 350,000 unit order it secured as part of the Fatih education project in Turkey.<\/p>\n
Lenovo and Asus rounded out the top five vendors in Q1 2014, shipping 266,049 units and 189,895 units, respectively.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, Turkey’s Fatih project will continue to help shape the overall MEA tablet market, with another phase set to take hold in Q2 and Q3 of 2014.<\/p>\n
Similarly, a number of education deals are in the pipeline in Egypt for both public and private schools.<\/p>\n
As a result of all these initiatives and other smaller corporate deals involving small and medium-sized businesses, the commercial segment is expected to account for 14% of the overall market’s volume in 2014 compared to just 9% in 2013, the IDC said.<\/p>\n
Another consequence of the commercial segment’s improving performance will be an increase in uptake of larger tablet devices.<\/p>\n
“In terms of screen sizes, 7\u20138 inch tablets will continue to dominate the market throughout 2014,” said Victoria Mendes, a research analyst at IDC. “However, we expect to see a good uptake of 10\u201311 inch tablets during the year as a number of the large education initiatives currently underway in the region require the use of these larger devices.”<\/p>\n
\u00a0Tablets versus larger-screen smart phones<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n