New data by the UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (via Gulf Business), Apple’s sixth generation iPhone is the most popular smartphone in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the third quarter of the year, with 2.8 per cent of the total marketshare. Samsung Galaxy S3 was pushed to into second position with a 2.5 per cent share, the report said.
According to the report, 46 per cent of handsets registered on the UAE’s networks between July 1 and September 30 were smartphones. Additionally, 56.2 per cent of the handsets in the UAE were manufactured by Nokia in Q3, down slightly from 56.4 per cent in Q2 2013. The UAE ranks highest in the world in terms of smartphone penetration with 73.8 per cent of consumers owning smartphones. The overall mobile penetration rate in the country stands at 181 per cent.
The iPhone 4S came third with a 2.3 per cent followed by iPhone 4 and BlackBerry 9900 (both 1.8 per cent), Samsung S4 (1.6 per cent), Galaxy S Duos (1.2 per cent), BlackBerry Bold 9790 (1.1 per cent) and BlackBerry Bold 9780 with one per cent.
This is great news for Apple. Despite huge successes in the US and Japan, Apple’s iPhone generally struggles in other countries around the world, where smartphone subside is not very prevalent. Another factor for the popularity of Apple’s iPhone in the UAE could be price. Data collected by Mobile Unlocked indicate that the average selling price of the iPhone 5s $707.58 in the UAE, which means that it’s the second cheapest place to buy an iPhone in the world.
| USA | $707.41 |
| United Arab Emirates | $707.58 |
| Hong Kong | $720.62 |
| Thailand | $741.52 |
| Kuwait | $742.65 |
| Malaysia | $742.95 |
| Saudi Arabia | $746.27 |