A new report indicates that Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) holds a commanding lead in the United Arab Emirates’ mobile market. The report comes from the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (via Traderarabia.com).
Nokia holds 56.4 percent of UAE
According to the TRA, 56.4 percent of the UAE mobile market uses handsets made by Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V). Unlike in other markets though, it isn’t the Windows Phone operating system which makes up most of Nokia’s market share. The report found that Symbian is the most popular operating system in the UAE market, while Windows Phone doesn’t even crack the top four.
Other manufacturers’ placements in the UAE
The TRA reports that in second place behind Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) is Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930), which holds 13.8 percent of the mobile market in the UAE. BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) comes in third with 10.7 percent of the market, while Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) comes in fourth with 7.4 percent of the market.
In terms of operating systems, Symbian holds the top spot with a 38 percent share of the market, while BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) holds a 23 percent share, while Android holds a 21 percent share and iOS holds a 16 percent share.
The importance of feature phones in the UAE market
The TRA found that feature phones continue to make up a large part of the mobile market in the UAE. Smartphone penetration was found to be 44 percent as of July. The most popular smartphone in the country is the Samsung S3, which was 2.6 percent of the registered smartphones. The iPhone 4S made up 2.5 percent of the market, while the iPhone 4 held 2 percent of the market. The iPhone 5 and the BlackBerry Bold 9900 each had 1.9 percent of the market.
When looking at mobile handsets across the board, the report indicated that the top five handsets in the UAE are the Nokia 1280 / 1282, the Nokia 101 / 1010, the Nokia X1, the Nokia E5 and the Samsung S III.
