Samsung, Apple, and Lenovo ship the most tablets in MEA in Q414

The tablet market in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) recorded robust year-on-year growth in the final quarter of 2014, with holiday purchases and aggressive end-of-year promotions spurring a particularly strong performance in the consumer segment. The latest figures released today by global advisory services firm International Data Corporation (IDC) show that the overall MEA tablet market grew 26.1 per cent year-on-year in Q414 to total 4.43 million units, with the activities of several Far East manufacturers spurring significant annual growth in shipments of Android (33 per cent) and Windows (131 per cent) tablets.

In South Africa, Vodacom introduced its own tablet and shipped approximately 170,000 units during the quarter, while in Turkey, local vendor Casper shipped around 100,000 tablets through the telco channel.

Year-on-year growth of 16 per cent saw Samsung continue as the leading vendor in MEA, with the Korean company shipping a total of 886,000 units to the region in Q4 2014. And despite suffering a decline of 11 per cent, Apple retained second place in the market, with shipments totaling 580,000 units. Lenovo remained in third position, but with year-on-year unit growth of 100 per cent and volumes totaling 572,000 units for the quarter, the vendor is extremely likely to overtake Apple at some point during 2015. Asus maintained its fourth position despite shipments falling seven per cent to 206,000 units, while Turkish vendor Casper increased its shipments 80 per cent to 180,000 units on the back of strong growth in the consumer and education segments.