Dubai: Apple’s iPhones continued to be the most commonly used smartphones in the UAE in the second quarter this year, but as a brand Samsung is the most popular, according to a report released by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) on Wednesday. iPhone 6 was ranked the most commonly used smartphone in second quarter of last year, too.
The report revealed market shares of mobile phones in the UAE by manufacturer and model.
During the period between April 1 and June 30, 81.5 per cent of handsets registered on the UAE’s networks were smartphones.
In terms of smartphones by model, the iPhone 6 continues to be the most commonly used smartphone in the UAE comprising 3.1 per cent of total handsets registered on the networks.
The iPhone 6S was the second most popular smartphone with 2.33 per cent, followed by iPhone 7 with a share of 2.25 per cent and iPhone 7 plus with a share of 1.77 per cent.
The above data might suggest that Apple is dominating the UAE market. However, in reality it is the Samsung brand that is most popular, as per TRA estimates. The TRA’s report shows that 34.5 per cent of all handsets registered on the mobile networks were manufactured by Samsung, followed by Nokia with 22.9 per cent and Apple with a share of 15.5 per cent. This was followed by Lenovo with 5.4 per cent and Huawei with a share of 3.2 per cent.
Moreover, users of smartphones and fixed internet services in the UAE visited various applications websites.
Apple iTunes Store was by far the most visited applications website, followed by Samsung Apps, and finally Android Applications.
In terms of social media, smartphone and fixed internet users made 20.4 billion visits to social networking websites during the period.
Visits to Facebook accounted for 90.4 per cent of total visits to social networking sites, followed by Twitter with 5.0 per cent of visits, then LinkedIn with 4.6 per cent.
