Saudi IT market sources have estimated the volume of computer sales in the kingdom’s markets last year at 223,000 PCs, said Al Watan Arabic daily, citing a report.
According to an International Data Company report, the average computer price reached US$ 1,950 with a figure of $434.8 millions for total sales.
The Saudi Compaq General Manager, Ali Dmairi, confirmed that his company’s market share of the computers sold in the kingdom last year was 20 percent including personal computers, laptops and Web servers.
According to the statistics, Del International ranked number two with a market share of 9.8 percent, followed by IBM with a market share of 7.1 percent, and Acer with five percent.
Speaking to a press conference organized by Compaq in Riyadh, Dmairi explained that his company succeeded in increasing its sales last year by 40.3 percent over the total figure for 1999.
Dmairi pointed out that that the IT market in Saudi Arabia, which includes computers, software, networks and systems, reaches annually two billion US dollars which amounts to 45 percent of the computer market in the GCC countries.
Al Watan said that the market share for computers assembled locally by Saudi computer firms reached 35 percent.
“This is a large share that has encouraged a number of international companies and their local agents to bring their prices down so that they won’t exceed the prices of the locally assembled computers by more than 20 percent,” said the report – Albawaba.com
