Demand for tablets surged by 90% in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) in 2012 as compared to the previous year.

This is according to the International Data Corporation (IDC), which also says that a total of 1.36 million units were shipped to the region in the fourth quarter of 2012.

IDC researchers say this surge is a result of factors such as cheaper tablet entrants, reduced prices by vendors, and overall rising consumer demand for these devices.

Increasing interest in tablets as an educational tool could further ensure strong growth throughout the MEA region, says the IDC.

IDC also expects tablet shipments to exceed portable PC shipments in the MEA region by 2016.

"Currently, tablets are used predominantly as entertainment devices," said Victoria Mendes, a research analyst with personal computing, systems and infrastructure solutions at IDC.

"However, we expect to see bigger demand for tablets in the corporate segment. In particular, we expect OEMs to use the enhanced features and capabilities of the Windows 8 platform to lure their existing corporate clients into adopting tablets for their organisations. This will, however, have to be coupled with lowered prices, as tablets running on the Windows 8 operating system are much more expensive than those running on Android OS, especially in light of the tough economic situation," she added.

In terms of operating systems, IDC says the share of Apple’s iOS in MEA is forecast to decline, while Android and Windows could continue to grow.

"Low-cost models are expected to be one of the key contributors towards the growth of the tablet market, boosting the share of Android as well," said Fouad Charakla, research manager at IDC.

"However, these low-cost tablets will not be considered as primary computing devices by most end-users," he added.

Moreover, Mendes says that international vendors are trying to keep up with demand for low-cost tablets by introducing of smaller screen sizes and slightly lower-end models, to cater to cash-strapped consumers.

She adds that this could mean that advancements in terms of new features and higher end processing may be compromised in order to gain market share in the short term.

At a country level, Turkey and Saudi Arabia are expected to contribute the most to the growth of the MEA region. The Saudi market in particular is price sensitive and, as such, the market volume share of low-cost tablets is expected to increase heavily, says the IDC.