Despite many global markets experiencing a slowdown in consumer technology spending, demand in the entire Gulf Corporation Council (GCC) region is on the rise, a new research report has claimed.
Business Monitor International (BMI), in its Q3, 2011, report, predicts a 4 per cent year-on-year rise in the value of the consumer technology market value across the region to $9.8 billion by the end of 2011.
The size of consumer technology market is estimated to reach $4 billion by the end of this year in Saudi Arabia, $799 million in Kuwait, $521 million in Oman, $481 million in Qatar and $452 million in Bahrain, the report said.
The size of the UAE’s electronics device market is projected to hit $3.4 billion by the end of this year. This is expected to increase to $4.3 billion by 2015, driven by the popularity of new electronic devices such as LED and 3G TV sets, 3G mobile handsets, smartphones, feature-rich notebooks, MP3/MP4 players, 3D technology and Blu-ray players.
According to BMI estimates, UAE residents will spend $7.71 billion on food items this year, meaning that consumer technology sales will be the equivalent of 45 per cent of their annual food spend.