iPhone is most popular mobile in UAE… where is Samsung Galaxy?

The UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has revealed statistics for the first quarter of 2016 on the country’s most popular mobile phone handsets, social networking platforms and applications websites.

According to the report, the iPhone trumps all others in terms of popularity, with the iPhone 6 continuing to be the most used handset in the country.

Interestingly, occupying three out of the Top 6 handset slots in the UAE, the iPhone takes the cake and the cherry on top of it while arch-rival Samsung barely makes it to the Top 5.

According to the report, during the period between January 1, 2016, and March 30, 2016, 68.91 per cent of handsets registered on the UAE’s networks were smartphones.

In terms of mobile phone models (both smartphones as well as feature phones), the Top 6 are:

iPhone 6: 4.48%

Nokia 108: 2.92%

iPhone 5S: 2.39%

Nokia 105/1050: 2.32%

Samsung Galaxy J1/J100H: 1.81%

iPhone 6S: 1.69%

According to the TRA data, the iPhone 6 continues to be the most commonly used smartphone in the UAE comprising, 4.48 per cent of total handsets registered on UAE networks.

The report shows that the iPhone 5s was the second most popular smartphone with 2.39 per cent. The third most commonly used smartphone was the Samsung J100H/J1 (1.81 per cent), followed by the iPhone 6s (1.69 per cent).

In terms of feature phones, Nokia 108 is the most preferred, and is also the second most used phone among all handsets with 2.92 per cent.

What about Samsung?

Fanboys will be happy to note that even as only one of the South Korean major’s devuces features in the Top 6, overall, Samsung was the most used handset brand in the UAE in first quarter of 2016.

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

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 January 1, 2016, to March 30, 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 January 1, 2016, to March 30, 2016. Visits to Facebook accounted for 91 per cent of total visits to social networking sites, followed by Twitter with 5 per cent of visits, then LinkedIn, MySpace and Maktoob.

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