1.22 AM Friday, 29 March 2024
  • City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
  • Dubai 04:56 06:10 12:26 15:53 18:37 19:52
29 March 2024

Revealed: Most popular mobile phones in UAE

TRA has released the second quarter findings of the ‘Smart Phone and Mobile Operating Systems’ review undertaken to identify the most popular mobile phones in the UAE.

Published
By Wam

The UAE's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has released the second quarter findings of the ‘Smarphone and Mobile Operating Systems’ review undertaken to identify the most popular mobile phone handsets.

The UAE-focused analysis assesses the market share of mobile handsets and operating systems. It also provides details on the number of visits to social media pages such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

In terms of mobile manufactures as of June 2013, Nokia currently enjoys the largest market share with 56.4 per cent. Samsung has the second largest market share of 13.8 per cent followed by BlackBerry with 10.7 per cent and Apple 7.4 per cent.

Out of the total number of mobile handsets registered on networks in the UAE, Smartphone penetration as of June 2013 stands at 44 per cent. Where favoured Smartphone models are concerned, the most popular handset is Samsung SIII representing 2.6 per cent of all registered smartphones, followed by the iPhone 4S with 2.5 per cent, the iPhone 4 with 2 per cent ahead of iPhone 5 and BlackBerry Bold 9900 both with 1.9 per cent.

Operating systems

Analysis on the operating systems (OS) used by Smartphones in the UAE as of June 2013 revealed that, Accenture’s Symbian remains in the lead (38 per cent) with BlackBerry OS coming in second (23 per cent) followed by Android (21 per cent) and Apple- iOS (16 per cent).

Offering insight into the strength of feature phones, the report shows that Nokia products continue to be the most popular handsets in the UAE. Out of the top five most popular handsets used in the UAE, the Nokia produced four. In terms of the percentage of handsets by model, the Nokia 1280/1282 leads the way (3.9 per cent), followed by the Nokia 101/1010 (3.6 per cent), the Nokia X1 (3.3 per cent), the Nokia E5 (3.0 per cent) and the Samsung S III (2.6 per cent).

The report also outlined the total number of visits to application websites. The TRA’s report shows that iTunes in the second quarter of 2013 had 4.1 billion visitors, a figure that represents 92 per cent of the total visits to application websites. iTunes dominance in this field was followed by Nokia’s OVI website with 134.7 million, Samsung apps website with 107.2 million visits and BlackBerry App world with 86.5 million.

Social media

The TRA’s review also offers analysis of the UAE’s social media realm. Facebook was by far the most popular site with a total of 13.2 billion visits representing 87 per cent of the total visits to all social networking websites during the period 1 April - 30 June 2013. Visits to Twitter came second with 11 per cent of the total visits with 1.7 billion and LinkedIn with 282 million. Maktoob and MySpace have achieved 8 million and 5 million visits, respectively.

The release of market data by the TRA adds credence to recent reports that predict continued rapid growth of the UAE’s consumer electronics industry reaching $3.97 billion by 2015. The TRA research also ties in with the importance surrounding the recently launched UAE mGovernment initiative that will see the majority of government services made accessible via smartphone.

In the Arab World, the UAE currently has one of the highest levels of Smartphone ownership and the mGovernment initiative seeks to respond to this by adapting government service delivery.

"With 73 per cent penetration, internet usage in the UAE is currently exceeding both Middle East and North Africa (Mena) and worldwide averages which stand at 41 per cent and 51 per cent respectively. The findings derived from the TRA’s latest research shows how healthy the UAE mobile sector is when compared to counterparts across the globe," said Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim, Director-General, TRA.

"TRA is committed to producing research that accurately depicts the current state of the market which, in turn, enables the UAE to track its progress and remain ahead of the global mobile industry curve," he added.

MUST READ: