Samsung wins popularity war in UAE

abu dhabi — One third of all handsets registered on UAE networks during the quarter ended June 30 were manufactured by Samsung.

The Korean brand was well ahead of the second-best brand with a big margin of 33.3 per cent. Nokia came in second at 27 per cent, Apple at 13.6 per cent and Blackberry at 1.8 per cent.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, or TRA, has revealed trends monitored in the second quarter ended June 30 on the nation’s most popular mobile phone handsets, social networking platforms and application websites.

The TRA’s report reveals the market share of mobile phones in the UAE by manufacturer and model.

While the report does not focus solely on smartphones, it is notable that during the second quarter, 77.8 per cent of all handsets registered on the UAE’s networks were smartphones.

The top five handsets in use during the period were Apple iPhone 6 with a penetration rate of 4.17 per cent, followed by Nokia 108 which had 2.99 per cent market share.

Samsung Galaxy J100H/J1 had a lower penetration rate of 2.45 per cent followed by Apple iPhone 6S at 2.32 per cent and Apple iPhone 5S at 2.29 per cent.

During the period, 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 Android Applications.

In terms of social media, UAE smartphone and fixed Internet users made 24 billion visits to social networking websites during the period from April 1, to June 30.

Visits to Facebook accounted for 90.39 per cent of total visits to social networking sites, followed by Twitter with 5.18 per cent of visits, and LinkedIn, MySpace and Maktoob.