EMEA Becomes Largest PC Market

For the first time, the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region surpassed the United States as the largest PC market, based on 2005 shipments, according to preliminary statistics by Gartner, Inc. PC shipments in EMEA totaled 72.6 million units in 2005, while PC shipments in the US reached 67.2 million units.

“The EMEA region finished the year with a strong fourth quarter in 2005, as more than 20 million units were shipped, a 17.2 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2004,” said Ranjit Atwal, senior analyst for Gartner’s Computing Platform Group in EMEA. “The consumer market did well in the region, especially in the mobile PC market where significant promotions in all countries led to exceptional demand.”

In EMEA, the professional market started slowly, but gained momentum toward the end of the quarter. While growth seems to be driven by increased demand, concerns over inventory continue to exist. With the exception of Hewlett-Packard, all the vendors increased their average days of inventory over 2004, rising for some of them by more than a third. In the fourth quarter of 2005, Hewlett-Packard became the first PC vendor to ship over three million PCs in a single quarter.

Lenovo suffered from their absence in the consumer market, combined with the failure of positioning their products competitively in the professional desk-based market. This resulted in a decline of seven percent in the fourth quarter of 2005.

In EMEA, preliminary results show that for PC shipments in 2005, Hewlett-Packard finished first followed by Dell, Acer, Fujitsu Siemens and NEC. Globally, the vendor rankings were a bit different. Preliminary figures rank Dell first worldwide, followed by Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Acer and Fujitsu Siemens.

Across many regions in 2005, the mobile PC market showed high growth. “Mobile growth came to some extent at the expense of desk-based PCs,” said Charles Smulders, VP of Gartner’s Computing Platforms Worldwide Group. “Emerging regions had steady desk-based PC growth, however it could not offset the very weak desk-based PC growth in the mature regions.”

While worldwide PC shipments increased 15.3 percent in 2005, Dell continued to grow more than the industry average, as its worldwide PC shipments grew 18.6 percent in 2005. However, Dell’s worldwide growth rate started to slow down in the second half of 2005. During the fourth quarter, Dell’s growth slightly exceeded the worldwide average and it gained more from overseas markets. Hewlett-Packard also did well in non-US markets in the fourth quarter, but it performed a little below the US average.

In the United States, fourth quarter results confirmed that the US professional market replacement cycle has peaked. “Both small and midsize business (SMB) and enterprise markets showed softness in demand,” said Mika Kitagawa, principal analyst in Gartner’s Computing Platforms Worldwide Group. “This slow down was mainly driven by poor desk-based PC sales. Professional mobile PC growth was very steady, especially in the SMB market.”

In the Asia/Pacific region, China, South Korea and India continued to perform well in the fourth quarter. China had strong demand in the professional segment due to fiscal year-end spending, while in the consumer market, leading vendors had some success in their winter promotion programs. In India, PC sales are expanding beyond the major cities.

GCC Region Advancing Toward Digital Literacy

ICDL GCC Foundation, the governing body of the International Computer Driving License program in the Gulf states, has announced that the digital skill gap in the region has undergone a sharp decline during 2005. The decline was described to be primarily in the educational and public service sectors. The GCC region was also declared as the world’s third most advancing region toward a digital literate society by ECDL Foundation.

In an effort to transform learning and to improve student participation, a record number of schools and universities in the region have integrated the ICDL syllabus in their curriculum and made the ICDL certification an essential qualification for their faculty and staff. As a result, over 32,000 GCC educators have enrolled in the ICDL certification program during 2005 alone. ICDL GCC Foundation considers educators the largest single group who undertook the ICDL program last year.

The second largest group that participated in the ICDL certification program during 2005 was government employees. Over 37 percent of the government organizations in the region have adopted the ICDL program and required their employees to validate their computer skills by taking the ICDL official test as part of a strategy to increase efficiency, drive up quality of service, and reduce cost on IT support. This group included employees of civil service and defense ministries, as well as semi-government organizations.

“The ICDL program in the GCC has doubled the number of participants during 2005 and we expect the numbers to increase even more during 2006. We strongly believe that those who do not jump on the bandwagon of digital literacy are likely to face difficulties in their jobs in the near future. Our digital literacy program has proven to influence the experience of candidates and its effectiveness not only on individuals but also on societies,” said Jamil Ezzo, director general, ICDL GCC Foundation. “The GCC has ranked third in the world during 2005 in the drive to create a digital society. The region has also registered a dramatic increase in the implementation of the ICDL program”, added Ezzo, “This is all attributed to the notable initiatives taken by several policymakers in the region that focus on the need of digital literacy in government to improve the delivery of health and education services and to create a competitive economy.”

“Despite the many achievements in the region, we believe that the road is still ahead in furthering digital literacy. ICT has become essential to socioeconomic growth as it creates new sources of income and employment opportunities. However, investment in ICT infrastructure must to go hand-in-hand with basic IT training for all citizens. Digital literacy should be made available to all citizens by establishing national computer training institutes that offer free or subsidized training. Ultimately, a population that is e-literate is likely to apply its skills toward economic and social productivity,” Ezzo concluded.

New President for eLinear Solutions

eLinear, Inc. announced that Ramzi Nassar, chief strategy officer of eLinear, has accepted the board of directors’ offer to become president of eLinear Solutions Middle East. As a result, Nassar will relocate to the company’s Dubai location for one year to assist in accelerating the effort in the region and to establish the same level of consistent and high-quality services provided to eLinear customers in the US. Nassar’s responsibilities as chief strategy officer will continue in partnership with recently hired CFO Mike Hardy.

EMC to Unveil New Storage Technology

Joe Tucci, EMC’s chairman, president and CEO; David Donatelli, EMC’s EVP of Storage Platforms Operations; and Rainer Erlat, EMC’s SVP for Europe, Middle East and Africa, will host an event in London announcing several new, innovative EMC solutions that simplify and extend the benefits of information lifecycle management (ILM). The event will take place on Thursday (Jan. 26) at 13:00 GMT and will be webcast live at www.EMC.com/announcement.