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

UAE, August 7, 2016- The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has revealed statistics for the first quarter of 2016 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 period between 1 Jan 2016 and 30 March 2016, 68.91% of handsets registered on the UAE’s networks were Smartphones. In terms of Smartphone by models, the iPhone 6 continues to be the most commonly used Smartphone in the UAE comprising 4.48% of total handsets registered on UAE networks. The report shows that the iPhone 5s was the second most popular Smartphone with 2.39%. The third most commonly used Smartphone was the Samsung J100H/J1 (1.81%), followed by the iPhone 6s (1.69%). However, the report shows that Nokia 108 is the second most used phone among all handsets with 2.92%.

The report shows that Samsung is the most used handset brand in the UAE in first quarter of 2016. The report indicates that 33% of all handsets registered on UAE networks were manufactured by Samsung. Nokia handsets have a presence of 28% on all networks. The third most popular handsets used in UAE is manufactured by Apple with a share of 14% on the UAE networks. This was followed by Blackberry (2%).

The report also provides information on the most popular mobile operating systems used in the UAE.  Android was the most commonly used operating system in the UAE as of Q1-2016 followed by iOS operating system, while the use of Symbian has been declining over time.   

During the period from 1 Jan 2016 to 30 March 2016, users of Smartphones and fixed Internet services in the UAE visited various applications websites.  Apple iTunes was by far the most commonly visited applications website, followed by Samsung Apps, 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 Jan 2016 to 30 March 2016. Visits to Facebook accounted for 91% of total visits to social networking sites, followed by Twitter with 5% of visits, then LinkedIn, MySpace and Maktoob.