Thursday, Aug 21, 2008

Dubai: Nearly 816,000 laptops were sold in the Middle East in the second quarter, compared to 430,000 in the same period last year, an increase of about 87 per cent, according to International Data Corporation (IDC) research.

John Coulston, head of marketing, Middle East, for DellDell, told Gulf News: "The region is currently taking advantage of consumer confidence, which is driven by an emergence of technology."

He said the Middle East is ahead of some global trends when it comes to technology. Looking over the last year, consumers are adopting technology that is not necessarily being adopted in other regions.

"A good example is that of television over internet protocol (IPTV). It is by far more advanced in the Middle East market than it is in Western Europe or the US," he said.

Quoting the IDC report, Coulston said more than two million laptops were sold in the region in 2007.

The ability to access technologies ahead of other regions "has given the consumers [in the Middle East] the confidence to go out there and invest is new technology themselves", he said,

Companies are also noticing a shift towards business laptops. "The business laptop market is growing exponentially. We are seeing more customers coming to us for business notebooks than ever before," Coulston said, adding that there was a 60 per cent year-on-year growth in business notebook sales in second quarter this year.

By Nadia Saleem

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