As the countdown for the IT Industry’s largest exhibition in the Middle East begins, the regional IT community prepares to converge at Dubai ’s World Trade Center (DWTC) for seven days of meeting, exploring and connecting.
What started in 1981 as an exhibition that showcased 46 local exhibitors has now become gargantuan in size and scope. GITEX is now serving the needs of a market that according to IDC is potentially $7.9 billion in volume. This year GITEX will feature more than 2,000 exhibitors from 60 countries. Belgium (Walloon region), South Africa and Malaysia will be participating with country pavilions for the first time.
The exhibition in its current format is divided into GITEX Computer Shopper, which is purely focused on the needs of the individual home user, while GITEX targets the trade segment. Organizers DWTC claim that GITEX visitor numbers are looking stronger this year, with combined visitor attendance potentially increasing by 20 percent to 200,000.
“The requirements of the fast-growing Middle East IT market, as compared to increasing levels of saturation globally, have made GITEX a highly appealing event for ICT companies worldwide,” said DWTC Director General Helal Saeed Khalfan Al-Marri.
GITEX Computer Shopper will see the global consumer electronics giant, Sony Corporation showcasing its new generation digital product range at a dedicated “Sony World” arena. Masaru Tamagawa, managing director, Sony Gulf FZE, said: “The Middle East is a very discerning market and GITEX and Computer Shopper have always been ideal platforms for Sony to introduce and showcase its array of superior consumer electronics products. This year ‘Sony World’ will reflect our focus on high-end digital products which we consider as the engine of growth for Sony.”
IT manufacturers, regional distributors and local retailers are busy brainstorming to come up with the best consumer bargains for GITEX Computer Shopper. Bundled offers, discounted prices and extended service warranties are just some of the incentives being planned during the Oct. 2-8 IT retail extravaganza.
“The main attraction of Computer Shopper is the release of latest technology and the price structuring,” said Ali Al-Amine, sales manager for Emirates Computers, a local distributor for Dell and Nokia. “It’s the best time for the Tier One vendors to gain market share, so they offer the best prices as an incentive. At that level of business, these discounts are like subsidies, not a loss but part of a long-term vision.”
Tier One vendors including HP, Sony, Samsung, Acer, Dell, Toshiba and Fujitsu-Siemens, he explained, will offer the most aggressive deals because they have both the regional strength and business capacity to make it worthwhile. For these large companies, Computer Shopper is a win-win situation: Consumers benefit from the special offers, and vendors lose nothing. The strategy behind the special offers is made at the vendor level, not by the regional distributors. With manufacturers playing to their market strengths, consumers will find that prices of Tier One products will drop close to those of the Tier Two assembled computers. Consumers looking for the latest technology would do well to draw up a checklist of their specific needs and then survey Computer Shopper stalls.
“The UAE and Computer Shopper in particular get the latest technology from around the world,” Al-Amine advised. “It’s only that consumers need to be aware of what’s new and what they need, and then decide how much they’re willing to pay for it.”
HP Asserts Market Dominance
HP continues to maintain its leadership position in International Standards Servers (ISS), according to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker for Q2 2004. IDC reports that HP is the undisputed market leader in regional ISS sales, in all four measured regions — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and the Rest of the Middle East (RoME).
According to Ryan D’Souza, product manager, Industry Standard Servers, Technology Solutions Group, HP (ME), the server market is continuously growing in importance and server capabilities are driving several tiers of computing infrastructure.
“The second quarter IDC results reveal that server technology has penetrated well within the regional market, and also, that infrastructure is being augmented by industry standards,” D’Souza said. “As for our role in these results, our continued market leadership and significant growth in ISS can be attributed to our strategic focus on this rapidly expanding segment.”
D’Souza summarized the recent IDC results: “In the UAE, HP currently has a phenomenal market share of 65.7 percent, with an annual growth rate that exceeds that of the market by 5.5 points. In neighboring Saudi Arabia, we have retained our leadership position with a 40.8 percent share of the market while making considerable inroads into the new entry-level market space. HP’s 50 percent voice of share in Egypt retains us as leaders under difficult market conditions.”
The IDC results also rank HP at the very top of the region’s collective industry results.
“HP has, without doubt, demonstrated the best performance across the region,” remarked D’Souza. “While we have continued to lead the market, this quarter clearly defines a new dimension to our ranking — we have risen from leadership to dominance among the top-tier vendors in servers. We have grown almost 10 times faster that the market and recorded a 10.6 point year-on-year gain.”
