UAE

Usage Patterns

Demographics

There were 3,558,000 internet users in the UAE (representing 74.1% of the population) in December 2009, according to Internet World Stats.

Number of internet users in the UAE:
- 2007: 1,708,500 (38.4% of the population)
- 2008: 2,260,000 (48.9%)
- 2009: 3,558,000 (74.1%)

This was up by 384.1% since 2000. (Internet World Stats, April 2010)

Mobile Devices

Mobile / Smartphones

Smartphones constitute 43.7% of total cellular handsets in the UAE, according to an Arab Advisors Group's survey of cellular users in the UAE.

The survey revealed that Blackberry leads with 51% share of smartphones operating systems (calculated based on handsets' brands).  iOS (iPhone) ranked second while Symbian came in third.

The survey also revealed that 60% and 50% of iPhone and Blackberry users, respectively, use applications through their smartphones, while only 37% of Symbian smartphone users use applications. 90% of those who use applications prefer the applications in the English language, where only 8.2% of the respondents prefer the Arabic language.

The survey also probed the tablets available among the cellular users. The survey revealed amongst houses that have tablets, Apple's iPad leads by a wide margin. (Arab Advisors Group, October 2011)