PC shipments in the Gulf Cooperative Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE) soared nearly 43% to top 1.6 mln units, valued at $1.8 bln in 2005. According to IDC, the expansion was fueled by strong demand for notebooks and large desktop projects in the government and education sectors. Notebook demand gave international players an edge by lifting their profile, and in 2005 they managed to increase their market share from just over 79% to nearly 84% at the expense of local assemblers and non-branded imports.