Oman Consumer Electronics Report Q3 2012

BMI expects that Oman’s consumer electronics market will grow by around 8% in 2012, with consumer spending receiving a boost from elevated oil revenue and government spending. An increase in government spending to allay concerns expressed by protestors in Muscat in 2011 should mean that incomes rise and forecast healthy loan growth in the banking sector also underpin our projection of a solid market expansion. Vendors will rely on innovative products such as tablets, 3D and light emitting diode (LED) TV sets and feature-rich smartphones – and the roll-out of 3G services – to act as demand drivers in the Omani market.
Headline Expenditure Projections Computer sales: US$188mn in 2011 to US$203mn in 2012, +8% in US dollar terms. Forecast in US dollar terms upwardly revised due to macroeconomic factors and analyst modification, with drivers including the government’s Towards Digital Oman strategy.
AV sales: US$297mn in 2011 to US$318mn in 2012, +7% in US dollar terms. Forecast in US dollar terms unchanged, with the main driver being demand for flat-screen TV sets.
Handset sales: US$186mn in 2011 to US$206mn in 2012, +12% in US dollar terms. Forecast in US dollar terms upwardly revised, with smartphones on course to account for 60% of sales.
Risk/Reward Rating: Oman’s score was 44.6 out of 100.0, with a relatively small market offsetting the relatively high Country Risk score. Oman took 9th place in our latest RRR table, but due to the relative affluence of Omani consumers this will remain a valuable regional market for vendors.
Key Trends & Developments Tablets are enjoying a boom in Oman and despite originally being viewed largely as a consumer device, are now finding increasing adoption among the enterprise segment. Tablets are generally significantly more expensive than smartphones, but prices will continue to fall and they are seen as a growth area in 2012. Meanwhile, vendors are also heavily promoting the concept of ultrabooks, a new category of highend notebooks.
In Oman, TV sets account for more than half of all AV revenue. Flat-screen TV sets will be the main driver of AV category sales growth over the forecast period as consumers upgrade and trade their old models for digital. The market’s development should be boosted after planned moves by the GCC to encourage a migration from analogue to digital TV broadcasting.
The introduction of higher data transmission speeds will help to support the launch of new services over the next few years – this should help to stimulate strong growth within the smartphone sector. Increasing use of social media and mobile ecommerce are major factors driving the growth of the smartphone market in Oman.