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'SAMENA Daily' - News

Oman is second largest in using smart phones

Thanks to rapid, revolutionary transformation in the way mobile phone used to be in the region, the Sultanate has been tops second in the list of countries with highest smartphone penetration among the GCC countries. While UAE and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia topped the region in terms of having largest number of smart phone users, Oman secured the second position proportionate to its population.
"Oman is the second country that has highest smart phone penetration rate. More than 65 per cent of sell out of different smartphones is witnessed in Oman and we are aiming to tap on that factor", Ashraf Fawakherji, Vice-President of Huawei Device Middle East told the Observer quoting a study carried out by Google.
 
Speaking on the sidelines of signing an agreement with ABT for distribution of Huwaei smartphones on Oman, he said although India and China were expected to be the leaders in smartphone usage with their large population, the Middle East region too has entered the race with its quick adaptability to the touch phone culture that is reflected on the number of handsets being sold in the market.
 
"The fact that only 35 per cent of the Omani population is used to the traditional phones and the rest has already shifted themselves so the comfort of smart phones. This picture is a great potential for our handsets and we have great hopes on Oman", he added. With its top figures of 2,000 percent increase in the Internet users in GCC, with growing focus on e-commerce, and with Arabic being the fastest growing language on the Web with a penetration rate of 18 per cent worldwide, the region is all poised for further their position in the days to come.
 
IDC, the premier global market intelligence firm, has said tablets and smartphones are to continue to eat further into the Gulf shipments in the fourth quarter, as consumers are spending less on personal computers. "Vendors and channels were stuck with high levels of inventory from the first half of this year due to continuously sluggish demand by end users," he said quoting IDC report. PC shipments for the next quarter are expected to be less than 1.56 million units, a sharp decline compared with last year's shipments during the same quarter.


Source: http://www.zawya.com/story/Oman_is_second_largest_in_using_smart_phones-ZAWYA20130629050314/

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