The Middle East needs to purchase six million more personal computers (PCs) to keep up with global PC sales figures as the level of PC penetration is much below the world average, with consumers collectively purchasing only one third of the PCs they need to have bought, indicated a comparative study by the Dubai-based Madar Research Group.
Enhanced Internet connectivity coupled with increased spending on personal computers (PCs) by the burgeoning small and medium enterprises and education sectors, is expected to usher in double-digit growth in PC sales across the 18 countries that make up the Middle East region, according to the study, the Khaleej Times reported.
This led to the Middle East registering PC sales of a low 3.12 million as against the world sales figure of 188.9 million units.
The actual sales were also lower than the theoretical sales figure the region should have achieved on both, the PC sales vis-a-vis population ratio of 9.14 million units and the PC sales vis-a-vis GDP ratio of 3.62 million units at the end of 2004.
The survey added that similarly, the Middle East needed to purchase 500,000 more PC units to come up to the world ratio of 472 PC unit sales for every $100 million gross domestic product (GDP).
Madar Research's survey covered the Levant group of six countries of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Iraq and Egypt, the six GCC states - UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain, the North African countries - Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan and Yemen.
Except for the GCC states, which posted a number of 1.18 million PCs sold as against the global norm of 1.10 million, all other countries in the region had lower PC sales figures, with the Levant falling short by 2.7 million, North Africa by 1.7 million, and Sudan and Yemen showing a shortfall of 1.6 million units.
