Pakistan Tablet Market to Grow Due to m-Education Initiatives

According to the recent statistics given by International Data Corporation (IDC), the Middle East and Africa (MEA) tablet market (which includes 2-in-1 devices) showed flat growth of 0.3 percent year on year in Q2 2015. A total of 4.05 million units were transported in Q2 2015, with tablets growing 0.1 per cent year on year to a total of 4 million units.

The education sector will play an important role in the growth and developments of markets.

“Education remains a key focus for governments in the region, and the reductions we have seen in budgets have typically not hampered government spending on the sector. For example, Kuwait and Pakistan are expected to see a combined total of 175,000 2-in-1 shipments flood into their education sectors during the second half of 2015.”

Said Fouad Rafiq Charakla, program manager for personal computing, systems, and infrastructure solutions at IDC.

The 2-in-1 market increased 17.6 percent over the same time span to make up the remaining 50,000 units. The overall market fall short 3.2 percent per year, which compares unfavorably to the 59.6 percent per year growth noted in 2014.

“The tablet market, which is nearing saturation point in many countries, is being cannibalized by the emergence of smartphones boasting large screen sizes.”

Says Nakul Dogra, a senior research analyst for personal computing, systems, and infrastructure solutions at IDC.

He also said:

“The market share of large-screen smartphones is increasing, and the launch of the iPhone 6 plus has only served to spur the trend toward bigger screen sizes in this space.”

According to the retailer ranking, Samsung leads the tablet market in Q2 2015 with 28.0 percent market share. Lenovo placed second with 13.2 per cent market share. Apple sustained its third-place ranking with a market share of 11.2 percent despite facing a 27.3 percent drop in shipments.

IDC predicts that a total of 16.84 million units will be shipped in 2015 as a whole, with growth rate of 0.8 percent.

“Businesses will find it easier to incorporate Windows into their existing IT infrastructures and corporate cultures rather than introduce a new OS hub just for tablets, thereby enabling them to run the same OS on both PCs and tablets. We also expect the share of 2-in-1 devices in this market to grow from around 1.2 per cent currently to 3.3 per cent by the end of 2016.”

Dogra said.

IDC’s ‘Middle East and Africa Quarterly Tablet Tracker‘ offers insightful analysis of key market developments, covering vendors, operating systems, quarterly market share data, and a comprehensive 5-8 quarter and five-year forecast.