The Middle East and Africa (MEA) personal computing devices (PCD) market, which is made up of desktops, notebooks, workstations, and tablets, recorded year-on-year growth of 36.6% in the first quarter of 2021 - the highest annual growth seen in the region since Q1 2006.

That's according to the latest industry analysis conducted by International Data Corporation (IDC), with the global technology research and consulting firm's newly updated Worldwide Quarterly PCD Tracker showing that shipments across the region reached 6 million units in Q1 2021.

"This exceptionally strong year-on-year growth can primarily be attributed to the fact that the market suffered a sharp slowdown in Q1 2020 due to the initial emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic," says Fouad Charakla, IDC's senior research manager for client devices in the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa. "However, we continued to see stronger-than-usual demand throughout Q1 2021 as more end users opted to purchase new personal computing devices to enable them to work or study from home.

"Despite a continuing global supply shortage, notebooks achieved the strongest year-on-year growth rates of all the personal computing categories. That said, shipments of tablets and desktops also saw strong year-on-year growth in Q1 2021."

In the PC segment, HP regained top position, while Lenovo placed second and Dell finished third. All these leading vendors recorded strong year-on-year growth in their shipments.

In the tablet space, Samsung remained in top spot, experiencing significant growth. The vendor's most notable growth was seen in Turkey, where its shipments more than quadrupled year on year. Lenovo placed second, experiencing the market's strongest overall growth, with its shipments in the region more than doubling year on year. Apple ranked third, experiencing strong growth as well.