PC sales in the region went up in the third quarter this year, defying fears of a slowdown, a report said.

About 1.25 million units were shipped in the quarter (desktops and notebooks), against 702,085 units (valued at Dh4.04 billion or  $1.1 billion).  for the same period last year, an increase of 78 per cent, according to the Gulf News report.

An International Data Corporation (IDC) report says that Qatar topped the list of fastest growing PC markets with a year-on-year growth of 103.38, followed by the UAE with 88 per cent, Saudi Arabia with 76.14 per cent, Oman with 56.88 per cent, Bahrain with 50.85 per cent and Kuwait with 43.33 per cent.

Laptops shipped more in the quarter with the total going up over 95 per cent year-on-year to 981,882 units.

In notebooks, UAE topped with 529,865 units, followed by Saudi Arabia with 323,057, Kuwait with 65,771, Qatar with 34,785, Bahrain with 14,592 and Oman with 13,812 units.

Again in desktops, UAE was the topper with 106,551 units, followed by Saudi Arabia with 88,442, Kuwait with 24,893, Qatar with 19,620, Oman with 19,447 and Bahrain with 13,709 units.

Desktop sales exceeded laptops in Oman.

IDC forecasts PC shipments for the fourth quarter, of around 1.2 million units valued at about $1 billion.

And for 2008, IDC expects about 4.5 million PCs to be sold in the region.