E-Business
PC Shipments in EMEA Stabilized During the 1Q2014

According to International Data Corporation (IDC), PC shipments in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) reached 21.8 million units in the first quarter of 2014, which resulted in a decline of 1.1% in comparison with the same quarter last year.
The EMEA market stabilized as Western Europe returned to growth at 8.6%, supported by an upturn in business demand across the region, which drove a strong 15.1% increase in the commercial space, while consumer also returned to more stable trends showing growth of 2.1%.
At the same time, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) remained partially impacted by high inventory and currency fluctuations and declined by 16.7% while MEA saw an 8.4% drop in shipments as parts of the region continued to suffer from political unrest.
Total EMEA shipments have now been declining for seven consecutive quarters, but the pace of contraction slowed considerably this quarter; despite areas of improvement, the market has not yet fully recovered. Desktop PC shipments increased by 1.4%, while portable PCs continued to contract by 2.6%.
“The end of Windows XP support was a major driver of the commercial rebound, and supported renewals mainly in the desktop area. In the European Union, as the macroeconomic outlook improved, companies started to invest in IT again after many quarters of postponing decisions. In other parts of the region political unrest and negative exchange rate evolution were inhibitors to market growth,” said Chrystelle Labesque, research manager, IDC EMEA Personal Computing.
“The first quarter of 2013 was marked by a strong decline, leading to a favorable year on year comparison in the consumer segment. Desktop and portable PCs with new features like touch generated higher interest among end users after years of delaying purchases. However, consumer shipments remained constrained.”
PC shipments in Western Europe posted growth, benefitting particularly from a very strong increase in commercial demand. The end of Windows XP support, an aging installed base, and an increase in business confidence stemming from improving macroeconomic outlooks all contributed to stronger demand in the enterprise space and fuelled corporate renewals.
For the fourth consecutive quarter, commercial PC shipments in Western Europe surpassed those in the consumer market, as traditional form factors remain key productivity tools in the enterprise environment.
Desktop PC shipments were a clear winner, growing by double digits and showing that traditional desktops are still favored by businesses.
For the first time in nearly two years the consumer market returned positive results, with shipments posting a slight increase year-on-year.
“The majority of vendors focused on close inventory management following problems they experienced with high stock amid rapidly declining demand a year ago.
“As a result, low stock levels allowed for quick and efficient introduction of new models and stronger sell-in during the quarter as consumer demand stabilized and led to increased intake of orders by retailers and distributors,” said Maciek Gornicki, senior research analyst, IDC EMEA Personal Computing. “While consumers in Europe are still spending on tablets and smartphones, interest in desktop and portable PCs has increased again recently, as some end users start to purchase PCs again after years of delayed renewals.”
“According to expectations, the overall PC market in Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East and Africa recorded a year-on-year decline of 12%,” said Stefania Lorenz, associate VP, IDC CEMA Systems. “The regions’ market mix reported quite different results from previous predictions, however. The CEE region contracted further, recording a year-on-year decline of 17%. Many factors inhibited PC market growth: political unrest in major markets, economic uncertainty and high unemployment, topped with unfavorable exchange rates were all causes for slowdown and budget restrictions. The MEA region, on the contrary, performed better than expected, though still at minus 8% on a year-on-year comparison.”
“In the first quarter of the year the portable PC market recorded a yearly contraction of 20% in the CEE region, with Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan reporting a major slowdown,” said Nikolina Jurisic, Product Manager, IDC CEMA Systems.
“The desktop PC market declined by 11% year-on-year, the commercial market was able to perform slightly better compared to the consumer space, but not enough to balance the overall results. Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary all reported overall positive results mostly driven by demand within the commercial space.
The MEA region saw a slightly better result in the consumer space, with very mixed results for the country dynamics in the region.”
E-Business
Kaspersky Transforms Threat Intelligence Reporting into an Interactive Content Hub

Easy interaction with exclusive Kaspersky reports, geo-filtering and actionable intelligence in a single click: expert insights on Advanced Persistent Threats (APT), Crimeware and Industrial Control Systems (ICS) threats are now available directly in Kaspersky Threat Intelligence Portal — with charts and visuals rendered inline.

In an era of increasingly sophisticated and frequent attacks, threat intelligence inevitably evolves into a business enabler that equips security teams with strategic advantage in their mission to back their company’s stability and growth.
Kaspersky, a recognised leader in threat intelligence, facilitates informed decision-making and proactive risk mitigation by introducing simplified access to actionable and relevant threat insights.
Kaspersky Threat Intelligence Reporting is a subscription-based service delivering over 200 in-depth analysis reports annually. These insights are compiled by Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team, Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team and Threat Research experts through the continuous tracking of more than 900 threat actors and campaigns.
Following the update, all reports previously representing a library of static PDF files (that is more than 2000 exclusive Kaspersky reports published to date) are now structured and can be examined directly in the Kaspersky Threat Intelligence Portal. For offline use, the standard PDF download format remains available as well.
The update also introduces deeper integration within each report, featuring direct links to indicators of compromise (IoCs), detection rules (including YARA), and MITRE ATT&CK® techniques. Users can now perform a single-click drill-down into specific threat actors, malware families and Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) across diverse geographies and industries.
Smart geo-filtering streamlines investigations by prioritising content explicitly mentioning a selected country, followed by broader regional intelligence, giving analysts a complete geographic view in a single query.
Enhanced Kaspersky Threat Intelligence Reporting supports the following use cases:
- Customised content discovery: apply geo, industry and software filters to instantly retrieve a list of relevant reports.
- Exclusive intelligence: access the most recent incident investigation reports, including those without public disclosure, to understand the nature of an attack and identify the actions required for mitigation.
- Actionable intelligence extraction: extract and apply threat data from the reports and apply it across specific infrastructure to detect traces of compromise.
- In-depth Threat Lookup and contextual analysis: investigate suspicious indicators identified within the network and quickly determine if a specific IoC is linked to a related threat report.
“Empowering cybersecurity teams in their mission-critical daily work to ensure business resilience in a complex threat landscape. This is the main driver behind our ongoing visual and functional improvement initiative.
While updating Kaspersky Threat Intelligence Portal, we focused on refining the customer experience by optimising processes of active investigation, proactive incident monitoring and detailed mitigation techniques,” comments Alexander Mazikin, Head of Threat Intelligence Product Line at Kaspersky.
E-Business
Weebly Websites to Shut Down for Nigeria, 66 Other Countries from September

Weebly, US-based free, beginner-friendly, drag-and-drop website builder and eCommerce service, will no longer be available for customers in 67 countries, including Nigeria, after September 2026, according to an email seen by Nigeria CommunicationsWeek.

Weebly said it is “winding down” services in different nations “due to changes in regulation and to simplify our global operations”.
The firm released a timeline of gradual changes, to help existing users access their data before the site shuts down.
Starting June 29, customers of 67 countries were no longer able to publish any new pages.
September 27, 2026: Weebly websites will be unpublished.
Before this date, users should download site content and data. Follow these steps:
Go to Account Settings, click on My Data, and select Download My Data.
This will help you migrate your content to another website provider, or retain it.
Concerned about privacy? Ask Weebly to delete your data, through the Erase Data and Forget Me option under the My Data tab on your account page.
December 26, 2026: Last date of accessing Weebly account.
Until this date, you will have access to the account, although sites will be unpublished.
This period helps users move their site, domains, and data to another service.
Domain names can be moved to another registrar only after 60 days from the registration date.
According to the Weebly website, users must make sure that they do not make changes to your registrant contact information (email, phone number, first/last name), as this will lead to a 60-day registrar lock and prevent you from transferring your domain name.
Note that domain name transfers work differently for country-specific domains; users must contact Weebly’s support team for assistance.
How to unlock, transfer domain name
From your Weebly Dashboard, go to websites, and click on Domains, then select Manage Domain.
Disable registrar lock, get EPP authorisation code, and copy the full code.
Disabling registrar lock will also disable privacy protection. It is important to set privacy protection once again with the new registrar.
Follow the instructions for the newly chosen registrar as the rest of the transfer process will be managed by them
Why is Weebly winding down?
While the firm attributed it to “a change in regulation,” online users have argued that Square, which acquired Weebly in 2018, is pushing its platform ‘Square Online’.
Square is originally a US-based payment processor, and the firm says it has since evolved into the “largest business tech platform”.
It calls Square Online a “free online store” but clarifies that those who do not sell online can also use it to build their websites.
In an earlier support update for the Weebly Website Builder, Square Online was consistently referred to as a better alternative, although at the time, it was said that Square “has no plans to discontinue the Weebly website builder”.
Which countries will Weebly no longer be available in? Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Aruba, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbadoa, Belarus, Benin and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Others are: Cambodia, Cameroon, Chile, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, and Côte d’Ivoire.
Also affected are: Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, French Polynesia, Gabon, Georgia, Ghana, Guinea, Iceland, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Laos, Malaysia, Mauritius, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Nepal and New Caledonia.
The rest are: Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Paraguay, Peru, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Korea, Suriname, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
E-Business
NOTAP to Commercialise University Research, Expands Patent Drive

National Office for Technology Acquisition and Transfer (NOTAP), has commenced the process of patenting and commercialisation of research works by universities and other research institutions in the country.

Dr. Obiageli Amadiobi, director general of NOTAP
Dr. Obiageli Amadiobi, director general of NOTAP, stated this in Abuja, during an interaction with journalists on her achievements since assuming office.
Speaking on the theme, “Strengthening Indigenous Capacity: NOTAP’s Drive for Technology Transfer, Local Content Development, and Innovative activities,” Amadiobi said the agency had involved both the academia and industry so that researchers can work on topics brought forward for commercialisation purpose.
“My minister is very intentional about this– very intentional about commercialisation of research results, which we have already submitted to him. They are meaningful researches, which we need to commercialise.
“We have established 69 intellectual property technology transfer offices in 69 universities that we are still counting. We have informed the vice chancellors of Nigerian universities to set up such offices and we will come and educate them on intellectual property and technology transfers.
“As we are doing this, we are also taking record of all the researchers of these universities and research centres and documenting them in a compendium.
“So, we have compendiums from the universities to us and we put them in a database. If you will recall, recently, the ministry, our supervising ministry, which is the Federal Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Technology, launched a programme titled Energise Commercialisation. This entirely was for commercialisation of all R&Ds,” she said.
On research Institutions carrying out research on areas of industry needs, she said, “NOTAP is bridging the gap between research and development with industry needs, “it is on our programme called the NITDF, NOTAP Industry Technology Transfer Fellowship. By this programme, we engage the universities and the industries, in what we call the triple helix. We liaise with the universities and the industries to sponsor, the industries will sponsor a Ph.D candidate in a Nigerian university to conduct relevant researches.
“They will provide the topics that they want researches for and such students will research on that with the assistance of the industries, because they wear the shoes, so they know where it pinches them. But usually, there are Ph.D candidates already established. This year alone, we certified about 15 of them to enter into this programme and they have gone into the various universities.
“And we are still looking for people to update some of the projects; the research topics we already have. But we are not getting enough persons to do the researches. So, we are going to do further advertisement to see if other candidates will come up.
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