TRA Reveals Data for Second Quarter of 2016 on UAE Market Shares of Mobile Handsets, Smartphones and Social Networking Sites

UAE, October 23, 2016 – The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has revealed statistics for the second quarter of 2016 (1 April to 30 June) on the nation's most popular mobile phone handsets, social networking platforms and applications websites. Investigating the current state of the market, the TRA's report reveals the market share of mobile phones in the UAE by manufacturer and model.

Whilst the report does not focus solely on Smartphones, it is notable that during Q2-2016, 77.81% of all handsets registered on the UAE's networks were Smartphones.  

The top five handsets in use in the UAE during Q2-2016 were Apple iPhone 6 (penetration of 4.17%), Nokia 108 (penetration of 2.99%), Samsung Galaxy J100H/J1 (penetration of 2.45%), Apple iPhone 6S (penetration of 2.32%) and Apple iPhone 5S (penetration of 2.29%).

The above might suggest that Apple is dominating the UAE market.  However, in reality it is the Samsung brand that is most popular.  The TRA's report shows that one-third of all handsets registered on UAE networks during Q2-2016 were manufactured by Samsung.  The top four brands were Samsung (33.3% of all handsets registered), Nokia (27%), Apple (13.6%); and Blackberry (1.8%).

During Q2-2016 users of Smartphones and fixed Internet services in the UAE visited various applications websites. Samsung Apps Store was by far the most visited applications website, followed by Apple iTunes, and finally Android Applications.  In terms of social media, UAE Smartphone and fixed Internet users made 24 billion visits to social networking websites during the period 1 April 2016 to 30 June 2016. Visits to Facebook accounted for 90.39% of total visits to social networking sites, followed by Twitter with 5.18% of visits, then LinkedIn, MySpace, and Maktoob.