E-Business
MEA PC Market Set for First Sign of Growth in Seven Quarters

Middle East and Africa PC market (including Turkey) is tipped to end a dismal run of seven consecutive quarters of year-on-year declines in Q2 2014 by posting long-awaited growth of 3.2%, according to the latest forecasts from research and advisory services firm International Data Corporation (IDC).
The recently compiled results for Q1 2014 were not so positive, however, with overall PC shipments down 8.3% year on year to total 4.8 million units, although this decline was slower than previously expected.
“Demand in the regional PC market continues to suffer as end users maintain their shift toward tablets and smartphones,” said Fouad Rafiq Charakla, a research manager for personal computing, systems, and infrastructure solutions at IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey.
“However, aggressive pricing strategies, an increasing focus from PC vendors on introducing innovative new form factors, and signs of recovery from the political instability that plagued certain parts of the region have all combined to soften the pace of decline in the PC market.”
Emerging products such as All-in-Ones in the desktop category and convertible notebooks and ultraslim notebooks in the portable PC space continue to gain momentum, although this is largely at the expense of demand for the traditional desktop and notebook form factors.
And after being active in the computing industry for almost seven years, mini-notebooks have reached their end-of-life in the region, with no units shipped during Q1 2014.
“The ongoing recovery from political tensions and other major issues in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa contributed significantly to the revival of PC demand in those countries, causing PC shipments to either grow or decline at a much slower rate,” continues Charakla.
“At the same time, the discontinuation of support from Microsoft for its Windows XP operating system (OS) forced some organizations in the region to upgrade the OS in their PCs, while others opted to replace their PCs altogether, which positively impacted commercial demand.”
Looking at the market in more detail, portable PC shipments declined 8.9% year on year in Q1 2014 to total 3 million units, while desktop shipments declined 7.2% to 1.8 million.
The top five vendors remained unchanged from the previous quarter. HP maintained its lead after posting year-on-year growth of 14.9% thanks to its stronghold in both the commercial and consumer segments and its significantly stronger share in the African PC market.
Second-placed Lenovo achieved astounding growth of 55.4% year on year, courtesy of its strong performance in the consumer segment, while Dell, Toshiba, and Acer posted declines of 4.5%, 11.6%, and 10.5% respectively.
Looking ahead, IDC’s forecast for growth in Q2 2014 will see PC shipments to the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey reach 4.5 million units, while 2014 overall is expected to see shipments increase 1.9% year on year, with desktop PCs declining 3.7% and portable PCs growing 5.5% due to the ongoing shift toward mobility.
A number of large-scale education deals, particularly in Pakistan and Kenya, will also contribute positively to the growth of portable PC shipments in the region.
However, beyond 2014, the regional PC market is expected to return to a state of consistent marginal decline.
E-Business
UK Orders Apple to Create Backdoor for Encrypted iCloud Data

United Kingdom has issued a “technical capability notice” to Apple, mandating that the company create a backdoor to access users’ encrypted iCloud data.
This directive, issued under the Investigatory Powers Act of 2016, requires Apple to provide British security officials with the means to retrieve all content uploaded to iCloud by any user worldwide.
Apple’s Advanced Data Protection (ADP) feature, introduced in 2022, offers end-to-end encryption for iCloud data, ensuring that only users can access their information.
The UK’s demand challenges this security measure, potentially compelling Apple to either comply by creating the backdoor or withdraw the ADP feature from the UK market.
Compliance could set a precedent, leading other governments to request similar access, thereby raising global privacy concerns.
The UK Home Office has declined to confirm or deny the existence of such notices, stating, “We do not comment on operational matters, including, for example, confirming or denying the existence of any such notices.”
This development underscores the ongoing tension between governmental surveillance efforts and technology companies’ commitments to user privacy.
E-Business
Oracle Adds AI Pricing Features to Financial Software

Oracle on Thursday added another set of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to NetSuite, one of its corporate finance software offerings, including some that might make it faster for consumers to get a price quote on purchases like custom bicycles.
Oracle has taken a different tack with AI than rivals such as Microsoft. Rather than racing toward general purpose virtual assistants, Oracle has decided to add targeted features that speed common-but-tedious tasks like entering a brief write-up of how a sales meeting went into a corporate records system.
Another such task that is common in the business world is giving a customer a price quote on a complicated purchase that might have a lot of options, when a sales professional would need to sift through materials to come up with a price.
NetSuite on Thursday announced a feature to compile such a quote via conversation with a chatbot asking what the customer wants, which can either be used by sales professionals behind the scenes to speed up their work, or directly by consumers in the case of e-commerce businesses.
“When you buy something like a bicycle, you have to configure it – figure out what parts you want and which parts work together. We all do it when we buy our cars on the web these days,” Evan Goldberg, executive vice president of Oracle NetSuite, said.
“If you can configure (products) for customers more easily, you can do more deals in a day, or each deal costs less.”
To power those features, Oracle has decided to skip the costly race to develop huge AI models and instead works with partners such as Canadian startup Cohere.
Goldberg said that Oracle’s recent agreement to build massive data centers with ChatGPT creator OpenAI could lead to working with it as well, though the two firms have made no formal announcements.
“I think you could safely say that there’s a possibility that OpenAI will be part of this,” Goldberg told Reuters. “We are eager to work with OpenAI.”
E-Business
IBM Exits Nigeria and Ghana, Transfers Operations to MIBB

IBM, the American multinational technology giant, has reportedly announced plans to exit Nigeria, Ghana, and other key African markets, transferring its regional operations to MIBB, a subsidiary of the Midis Group.
The move, which according to TechCabal was revealed in a statement by the company, effective April 1 2025, is part of a new operating model IBM is adopting across select African countries.
Under this arrangement, MIBB will take over IBM’s local operations, customer support, and relationships while marketing and selling IBM products and services across 36 African nations.
“MIBB will market and sell IBM products and services in 36 African countries, thereby giving MIBB’s sales network direct access to IBM products, services, and support, further boosting innovation and growth in the region,” IBM stated.
IBM has been a key player in Africa’s tech industry for decades, providing critical infrastructure for banking, telecom, oil and gas, and government services.
However, its planned exit follows a trend of multinational corporations leaving Nigeria.
In December 2024, Swiss cement giant Holcim announced its departure from Nigeria, selling its 83% stake in Lafarge to a Chinese firm.
Similarly, South African grocery retailer Pick n Pay disclosed plans in October 2024 to exit Nigeria by selling its 51% stake in a joint venture.
IBM has yet to respond to media inquiries regarding the specifics of its transition strategy and reasons for the exit.
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