Nokia currently enjoys the largest market share with 56.4 per cent in the UAE mobile phone handsets market, according to a study by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA).

 

Samsung has the second largest market share of 13.8 per cent, followed by Blackberry with 10.7 per cent and Apple with 7.4 per cent, said the TRA's ‘Smart Phone and Mobile Operating Systems’ review.

 

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. 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 and iPhone 5 and Blackberry Bold 9900 both with 1.9 per cent.

 

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 (38pc) with Blackberry OS coming in second (23pc) followed by Android (21pc) and Apple- iOS (16pc).

 

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 (3.9pc), followed by the Nokia 101/1010 (3.6pc), the Nokia X1 (3.3pc), the Nokia E5 (3.0pc) and the Samsung S III (2.6pc).

 

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 92pc 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.

 

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 87pc of the total visits to all social networking websites during the period April 1 - June 30. Visits to Twitter came second with 11pc 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 TRA adds credence to recent reports that predict continued rapid growth of the UAE’s consumer electronics industry reaching $3.97 billion by 2015. 

 

 “With 73 per cent penetration, internet usage in the UAE is currently exceeding both Mena and worldwide averages which stand at 41 per cent and 51 per cent, respectively. The findings derived from the TRA’s latest piece of research shows how healthy the UAE mobile sector is when compared to our counterparts across the globe,” said Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim, director general, TRA. “The 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. - TradeArabia News Service