Apple’s iPhone 5s continued to be the most used handset in the UAE in the fourth quarter following an increase in market share in the third quarter, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) said on Sunday.
In the three months to December 31, 2014, the then newly released iPhone 6, along with the Samsung Note 3 and Samsung S5 increased market share. The Samsung S3, Samsung S4 LTE, iPhone 4s and iPhone 5 — all lost market share in the fourth quarter, according to a TRA statement.
The Apple iPhone, Samsung and Nokia made up the top 15 handsets used in the UAE in the last three months of the year; however, not all were smartphones.
The TRA said smartphones accounted for 61 per cent of handsets “registered on the UAE’s networks”, between August 1 and December 31. Fourth quarter data was, however, not stated. The TRA did not respond to an email by deadline, requesting a clarification on the release.
Android was the most commonly used operating system in the UAE in the fourth quarter, while Symbian, the old Nokia operating system, “has been declining over time”. The market share of Apple’s iOS “is steadily increasing” and the use of BlackBerry’s RIM “is progressively declining”, TRA stated. And between August 1 and December 31, Apple’s iTunes was “by far” the most visited applications website by smartphone and fixed internet service users. Samsung Apps, Nokia OVIA, Android Applications and BlackBerry App World followed.
“The number of visits to BlackBerry and Nokia applications websites has been declining over time while the volume of visits to Apple iTunes and Samsung have been progressively increasing,” according to the TRA.
It said that the UAE smartphone and fixed internet users made “16 billion” visits to social networking website between August 1 and December 31. While Facebook accounted for 91 per cent of the social networking sites visited, Twitter accounted for 6.6 per cent, followed by LinkedIn, Maktoob and MySpace.
Source: http://www.zawya.com/story/UAE_iPhone_5s_most_popular_phone_in_Q4_2014-GN_01032015_020338/
