Personal Computing Devices demand declines in MEA - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

The Personal Computing Devices (PCD) market in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) has been reported as being on the drop side which is made up of desktops, notebooks, workstations, and tablets, reports ITREALMS.

According to the latest insights from International Data Corporation (IDC), PCD declined by 7.7 per cent year on year in Q2 2018.

The global technology research and consulting firm's Quarterly PCD Tracker shows that shipments fell to around 5.4 million units for the three-month period, which represents the lowest quarterly volume recorded for more than seven years.

"While this marks a considerable decline for the overall market, the PC segment actually performed well, with desktops experiencing strong growth and notebooks experiencing only a small decline," explains Fouad Charakla, IDC's senior research manager for client devices in the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa. "However, there was a much more significant decline in tablet shipments, and only the aggressive distribution push of certain Far-Eastern players prevented an even steeper decline."

The biggest decline in PCD shipments was seen in the 'Rest of Middle East' group of countries (which comprises Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Palestine). "Iran accounted for the largest chunk of this decline, with the country's worsening economic situation further weakening the local currency, which in turn caused shipments into the country to become more expensive and demand to decline," says Charakla. "The MEA region's largest single market, Turkey, experienced something similar, with the country's currency weakening to new lows against the U.S. Dollar, causing a significant increase in the cost of imported devices and a corresponding decline in demand."

In stark contrast, South Africa experienced strong year-on-year growth in PCD shipments after the rand reached one of its highest levels against the US dollar in recent times. "Market players operating in the country continued to take advantage of this opportunity throughout Q2 2018, with imported PCs costing far less than previously for both local channels and end users," says Charakla. "Other countries that saw strong year-on-year growth for the quarter were Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, and Lebanon."

IDC's research shows that the leading PC vendors remained unchanged in Q2 2018, with the top five all occupying the same positions as Q2 2017. While HP experienced a significant year-on-year jump in its share of PC shipments for the quarter, all the other major players saw their shares shrink, with the exception of Acer, which remained flat. It is also worth noting that the top three vendors accounted for more than 80% of the region's commercial PC shipments in Q2 2018.

Chuks Egbune/ED, Ops

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Mastercard acquires Oltio to accelerate digital payments in MEA

ITREALMS: 

Mastercard has completed the acquisition of mobile payments technology company, Oltio from Standard Bank Group, reports ITRealms.

The acquisition, ITRealms gathered, builds on Mastercard’s longstanding relationship with Oltio, a startup that pioneered and patented several mobile payments and banking solutions, including an authentication technology.

ITRealms reports that today, that technology enables consumers to authenticate Masterpass digital wallet purchases in South Africa using their bank PIN and mobile phone.

Over the coming months, Mastercard will leverage Oltio’s technology, people and infrastructure to enhance and scale its existing suite of digital solutions for merchants and issuers in cash-orientated, emerging markets  - in turn, enabling them to deliver more seamless payment experiences to the consumer.

“Too many consumers and merchants in the MEA region are stuck in a cash economy that doesn’t work for them,” says Mark Elliott, division president for Mastercard, Southern Africa. “By combining our joint expertise, technologies and reach, we can bridge the divide between the region’s cash economies and the digital future, bringing the benefits of digital payments to more people and businesses.”

Issuers will benefit from added functionality including person-to-person payments, bill payments, and airtime top-ups, which they can integrate into their existing mobile banking applications.

For merchants, Mastercard will enhance and scale its omni-channel acceptance solutions, enabling even the smallest businesses to accept digital payments using efficient and affordable technology, such as Quick Response (QR) codes.

“We have had a great relationship with Mastercard over the years, and believe that Oltio will thrive as part of an issuer-independent payments company with Mastercard’s vast global resources and innovative technology,” says Andrew Wilmot, executive, Group Card and Emerging Payments for Standard Bank.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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Cisco names David Meads, VP, MEA

ITRealms:

Cisco has named Mr. David Meads its Vice President for the Middle East and Africa (MEA) operations, reports ITRealms.

Cisco noted that in the current era of digital disruption, Meads, in this newly created role, would oversee the execution of company’s strategy in these two regions, ensuring the technology leader maintains its momentum at the forefront of digital transformation efforts.

The President, Cisco Europe, Middle East & Africa Region (EMEAR) Mr. Edwin Paalvast, pointed out that as digital adoption gathers pace in the Middle East and Africa, the new geographical set up under Meads would allow for greater synergies, relevancy and sharing of best practices across the two regions.

“David Meads’ appointment to lead Cisco’s business in the Middle East and Africa comes at a time of tremendous potential for the region to reap the benefits of digital transformation, supported by the prioritization of digitization in both government and business agendas,” he said.

Meads, ITRealms gathered has over 30 years’ experience in the Information Technology (IT) industry, having joined Cisco in 1996 and was most recently Cisco’s Vice President for Africa, where he was responsible for partnering with organizations across the continent to help them implement strategies to unlock the full potential of the digital era.

Over the years, ITRealms reports, he developed a reputation as a trusted advisor to enterprises and governments, partnering with them to deliver competitive advantages and efficiencies gained by adopting digital technologies and would be based in Dubai, Cisco’s hub for the Middle East.

“As we deepen the commitment to the region, we’re excited to have someone of David’s caliber at the helm to spearhead our strategy and support customers along their digitization journey. One of David’s priorities will be helping Cisco’s customers and partners create value in a highly connected, digital world, while enabling greater responsiveness to emerging market and customer needs,” Paalvast said.

Cisco also named Cathy Smith, who is currently the Managing Director for Cisco Southern Africa to now look after the whole of the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region reporting to David Meads. 

While, Olakunle Oloruntimehin retained his role as General Manager: Nigeria and English speaking West Africa as well as David Bunei who is the General Manager: East Africa and Indian Ocean Islands, remain in their roles but now report to Smith in her expanded role.

Nonye Dom/GEE 

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Orange driving digital transformation in MEA

ITRealms:

Orange Telecom has said it’s driving digital transformation in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) with new innovations in smart metering, solar power, Near Field Communication (NFC) and customer experience, reports ITRealms.

The Deputy CEO and Chief Finance and Strategy Officer, Ramon Fernandez, CEO of Orange Middle East and Africa (MEA) Bruno Mettling, and Jean-Marc Vignolles, Chief Operating Officer for Orange MEA, outlined their vision and priorities, identifying a number of new sectors and activities in which Orange could play a key role in delivering digital transformation in this region.

ITRealms gathered that the Middle East and Africa remains a key growth contributor for Orange, just as Bruno Mettling, CEO, Orange MEA, said the Middle East and Africa remains a key growth contributor for Orange. 

"Today, we are present in 21 countries in the zone, with more than one in 10 Africans being Orange customers. We are investing for the long term and plan to continue playing a major role in the digital transformation of the region, from providing infrastructure and access to communications services through to developing new models that will help the region grow,” he said.

Also, ITRealms reports that Orange Money, is part of the Group’s ambition to strategically diversify around mobile financial services. With more than 19 million clients (+36 per cent year on year) , Orange Money is a proven success and, for the first time, Orange Money has exceeded one billion euros of transactions in June 2016. It has recorded around 50 per cent growth in revenue in the first half 2016 compared to first half 2015.

In February 2016, ITRealms further gathered that Orange partnered with Google to launch the Orange Rise 31, an affordable new Android-based smartphone bundled with data, available in 10 countries in the MEA.

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MEA investment in IoT to reach $6.6

ITRealms:

The International Data Corporation (IDC) latest forecast has stated that organizations in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) will invest more than $6.6 billion in Internet of Things (IoT) hardware, software, services, and connectivity in 2016, reports ITRealms.

The global ICT consulting and advisory services firm, disclosed this in an update to its Worldwide Semiannual Internet of Things Spending Guide, expecting that IoT revenues in the region to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.3 per cent over the next four years to total more than $14.3 billion in 2020.

IDC also stated that manufacturing and transportation are the vertical industries leading the way in terms of IoT investment in MEA, with both expected to spend an estimated $1.1 billion each in 2016. The next largest industry, utilities, is expected to see IoT investments of almost $800 million this year. The IoT use cases receiving the greatest levels of investment from MEA organizations across these three industries are:

• Manufacturing Operations, which supports digitally-executed manufacturing, or how manufacturers use intelligent and interconnected input/output tools (sensors, actuators, drives, vision/video equipment etc.) to enable different components in the manufacturing field (e.g. machine tools, robots, conveyor belts) to autonomously exchange information, trigger actions, and control each other independently.

• Freight Monitoring, which uses RFID, GPS, GPRS, and GIS technologies to create an intelligent, Internet-connected transportation system. This system carries out the intelligent recognition, location, tracking, and monitoring of freight and cargo by exchanging information and real-time communications via wireless, satellite, or other channels.

• Smart Grid (Electricity), where non-smart meter field devices owned by the electric utility are used to control and optimize power flow to ensure efficient, safe, and reliable service. The devices are used throughout the electricity distribution grid for tasks such as line sensing, substation automation, and feeder & line equipment control and optimization. Utility owned in-home devices are included in this category when used for grid operations.

IDC further said that by looking across all industries in the MEA region, freight monitoring will receive the greatest level of IoT investment throughout the forecast period, followed by smart grid (electricity) and manufacturing operations. In addition to these use cases, remote health monitoring, smart buildings, and smart home concepts will see significant levels of investment over the next few years. The IoT use cases that will experience the greatest revenue growth over the 2016–2020 forecast period are smart buildings, insurance telematics, and smart grid (gas).

"IoT solution deployments across MEA will continue to see increased adoption rates, both in the public and private sectors, as stakeholders begin to realize an immediate return on their investments," says Wale Babalola, a research analyst for telecommunications, IoT, and digital media at IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey. "In addition, the growing development of purpose-built IoT platforms and the continuing proliferation of smart devices will serve as catalysts for IoT adoption across the region's industry spectrum."

While manufacturing and transportation will lead the way in terms of overall IoT investments in the MEA region, six industries will see IoT spending levels increase by more than 100% over the 2016–2020 forecast period – construction, consumer, insurance, manufacturing, retail, and telecommunications. Cross-industry investments, which represent use cases common to all industries, are also forecast to see revenues more than double during this period.

"A use case represents a detailed composition of a technology investment that is made to produce a set of end-user benefits," says Marcus Torchia, research manager for IoT within IDC's Customer Insights and Analysis team. "The long-term opportunity for IoT vendors is helping to identify and create immediate and residual benefits for end users through their technologies. We see strong opportunities across many industries. For example, in highly instrumented verticals like manufacturing and transportation, large data sets are used to optimize operational processes and extend the life of high-capital cost assets. In other sectors like healthcare and consumer, IoT technology is being used to produce benefits that improve quality of life."

The Worldwide Semiannual Internet of Things Spending Guide forecasts IoT revenues for 12 technologies and 47 use cases across 20 vertical industries in eight regions and 52 countries. Unlike any other research in the industry, the comprehensive spending guide was designed to help vendors clearly understand the industry-specific opportunity for IoT technologies today.

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Enterprise Mobility to reach 80% MEA healthcare by 2017

ITRealms

Recent report published by the International Data Corporation (IDC) Health Insights has shown that enterprise mobility will have penetrated over 80 per cent of Middle East and Africa (MEA) healthcare organizations by 2017, reports ITRealms.

The report which is based on IDC's annual survey of the region's CIO community, ITRealms informs, indicates that corporate smart devices have already been deployed by over one-third of MEA healthcare organizations, with another 50 per cent planning to adopt them by 2017. Mobilizing enterprise applications, adopting mobile device management (MDM) solutions, and developing policies for enabling enterprise mobility are at the peak of priorities of the IT executives that are planning to embrace mobility.

The press release made available to ITRealms revealed that Information Technology (IT) security remains the greatest concern for healthcare CIOs, with the surveyed IT leaders identifying insider threats and staff-related issues as their most critical security challenges. These concerns are being further aggravated by insufficient budgets, the lack of mature security strategies, and a shortage of skilled IT security personnel.

The lead research analyst for Central Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMA) at IDC Health Insights, commenting on the report said, "The need for a mobile healthcare workforce will be one of the key drivers of mobile technology investments in MEA over the coming years. In line with the rapidly-rising importance of enterprise mobility within the MEA healthcare industry, mobile security will dominate investments in IT security solutions. Investments in MDM solutions will see particularly strong growth."

IDC Health Insights assists health businesses and IT leaders, as well as the suppliers that serve them, in making more effective technology decisions by providing accurate, timely, and insightful fact-based research and consulting services. Staffed by senior analysts with decades of industry experience, their research analyzes and advises on business and technology issues facing the payer, provider and life sciences industries, ITRealms gathered.

For the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey region, ITRealms learnt, IDC retains a coordinated 

network of offices in Riyadh, Casablanca, Nairobi, Lagos, Johannesburg, and Istanbul, with a regional center in Dubai with an international perspective to provide a comprehensive understanding of markets in these dynamic regions, and also their market intelligence services are said to be unparalleled in depth, consistency, scope, and accuracy. IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey currently fields over 130 analysts, consultants, and conference associates across the region

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

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Cisco forecasts cloud growth in Middle East, Africa by 2018

ITRealms:

Cisco in its latest fourth annual Global Cloud Index (2013 – 2018) forecast growth in cloud traffic, workloads and storage in the Middle East and Africa (MEA), reports ITRealms.

The Cisco Index also showed to ITRealms that with private cloud significantly outpacing public cloud, experts foresee that in the next five years, data center traffic will nearly triple, with cloud representing 76 per cent of total data center traffic.

“By 2018, half of the world’s population will have residential Internet access and more than half of those users’ (53 per cent) content will be supported by personal cloud storage services,” the study revealed.

ITRealms recalls the United Nations disclosed recently that the world’s projected population by 2018 will be 7.6 billion people.

Equally, the project study indicated that African enterprises are steadily embracing cloud computing as the next big step in the advancement of the Internet. 

This trend, ITRealms gathered is definitely being witnessed on the continent as more and more individuals as well as companies are embracing cloud-based solutions.

Further, ITRealms notes some key highlights from the study for the region to include that from 2013 through 2018, Middle East and Africa is expected to have the second highest cloud workload growth rate. 

Even as Asia Pacific (45% CAGR); Middle East and Africa (39% CAGR); and Latin America (34% CAGR). 

Just as in the Middle East and Africa, data center traffic will reach 366 exabytes per year (30 exabytes per month) by 2018, up from 68 exabytes per year (5.7 exabytes per month) in 2013, a CAGR of 40% from 2013 to 2018.

+Remmy Nweke +Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) +Cisco
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