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Smartphones account for 46% of UAE handsets [CommsMEA (United Arab Emirates)](CommsMEA (United Arab Emirates) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) The UAE's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has released a report on the nation's most popular mobile phone handsets, social networking platforms and applications websites. Investigating the current state of the market, the report reveals the market share of mobile phones in the UAE by manufacturer and model. According to the report, during the third quarter of this year, 46% of handsets registered on UAE networks were smartphones, a figure that has increased during each quarter in 2013. In smartphone model rankings, the iPhone 5 was the nation's most commonly used smartphone, accounting for 2.8% of the total handsets registered. The Samsung S3 was the second most popular handset with 2.5% of the market share, followed by iPhone 4S (2.3%), iPhone 4 and BlackBerry 9900 (both 1.8%); Samsung S4 (1.6%); Galaxy S Duos (1.2); BlackBerry Bold 9790 (1.1%) and BlackBerry Bold 9780 (1.0%). The report indicates that 56.2% of all handsets registered on UAE networks were manufactured by Nokia followed by Samsung (16.4%), BlackBerry (10.2%) and Apple (7.8%); LG (1%); Sony (0.9%); Huawei (0.5%) and HTC (0.6%). Unlike Nokia and Blackberry, Samsung and Apple recorded increases in their market shares in Q3. In terms of general handset models, the Nokia 101/1010 (4.1%) was the most popular mobile handset in UAE in Q3 surpassing the Nokia 1280/1282 which was the most popular in the previous quarter. In Q3, the Nokia 1280/1282 (3.7%) was the second most popular handset followed by both the Nokia X1 and Nokia E5 (3.0%); iPhone 5 (2.8%); Samsung S III (2.5%); iPhone 4S (2.3%); the iPhone 4 and BlackBerry Bold 9900 (both 1.8%); Samsung S4 (1.6); Galaxy S Duos (1.2%); BlackBerry Bold 9790 (1.1%) and BlackBerry Bold 9780 (1.0%). Continues on next page [[page-break]] During the third quarter, users of smartphones and fixed Internet services in the UAE visited various applications websites a total of 1.5bn times. Apple iTunes was by far the most commonly visited applications website, followed by Nokia OVI; Samsung Apps; Blackberry App World and Android Applications. In terms of social media, UAE smartphone and fixed Internet users made a total of 13.7bn visits to social networking websites during the monitored period from 1 July 2013 to 30 September 2013. Visits to Facebook accounted for 91% of total visits to social networking sites, followed by Twitter with 8% of visits, Maktoob with 0.1%, then LinkedIn and MySpace. "The report provides results that will be of interest both to the public and, crucially, the manufacturers who supply the communications technology our nation has come to depend on," said HE Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim, director general, TRA. "Providing very distinct analysis of consumer adoption, the research reflects the nation's dynamic ecosystem in which both feature phones and smartphones are driving sustained telecommunications sector growth." (c) 2013 ITP Business Publishing Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info, an Albawaba.com company |