iPhone 5s leads the pack

A salesman holds Galaxy 5 and iPhone 5 models at a store in Seoul. — Reuters

Abu Dhabi: iPhone 5s was the most popular smartphone in the UAE, followed by iPhone 5, while the Samsung SIII with a 2.4 per cent market share stood third in the popularity rankings in the third quarter ending September 30, 2014.

In terms of smartphone models, the iphone 5s clinched the top slot with a 3.7 per cent of total handsets registered on the UAE networks, a figure that increased by 22 per cent during Q2, 2014 and by six per cent in Q3, 2014, said the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority’s (TRA) statistics for the third quarter of 2014, which gives interesting trends on the mobile phone market and social media.

The report illustrates that the iPhone 5 was the second most popular smartphone with 2.5 per cent of the market share. The third most commonly used smartphone was the Samsung SIII with a market share of 2.4 per cent, followed by iPhone 4s, Samsung S4 LTE, Galaxy S Duos, iPhone 4, Samsung Note 3, BlackBerry Bold 9900; Samsung S5, revealed the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority’s statistics for the third quarter of 2014.

According to the report, during the third quarter, 59 per cent of handsets registered on the UAE’s networks were smartphones, a figure that has been constantly increasing overtime.

Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim, director general of the TRA, said: “The report demonstrates the dynamic nature of consumer patterns in relation to handset choices.”

In relation to smartphones, the iPhone 5s recorded an increase in market share during the third quarter of 2014. The market shares of the Samsung S5 LTE and Samsung Note 3 increased whereas the iPhone 4s, iPhone 4, Samsung S3, Galaxy S Duos, and BlackBerry Bold 9900 fell.

The report indicates that 45 per cent of all handsets registered on UAE networks were manufactured by Nokia, although this figure has been declining over time. This figure decreased by five per cent during the last two quarters. This was followed by Samsung at 22.6 per cent, Apple at 10 per cent, BlackBerry at 6.1 per cent, Sony at 1.1 per cent, HTC at one per cent, then the newly emerged manufacturer Lenovo at 0.9 per cent and Huawei at 0.8 per cent.

Although the growth has shrunk, Samsung and Apple recorded increases in their market shares in the third quarter of 2014. In terms of specific handset models, the iPhone 5s was the most popular mobile handset in the UAE in the quarter. The Nokia 105/1050 with 3.4 per cent market share was the second most popular handset followed by the Nokia 101/1010 with 2.9 per cent share, both iPhone 5 and Nokia 1280/1282 had a market share of 2.5 per cent each.

All the phones’ market shares such as that of Nokia X1, E5 and 1280/1282 have declined in the quarter. The report also provides information on the most popular mobile operating systems used in the UAE. The use of Symbian is declining over time and the Android was the most commonly used operating system in the UAE. The market share of iOS is steadily increasing while RIM, the operating system for Blackberry, is continuously decreasing.

In terms of social media, UAE smartphone and fixed Internet users made a total of 28 billion visits to social networking websites during the period July 1, 2014 to September 30, 2014. Visits to Facebook accounted for 88 per cent of total visits to social networking sites, followed by Twitter with nine per cent of visits, then LinkedIn, Maktoob and MySpace.

haseeb@khaleejtimes.com