Industry News

Communications World Network (CWW) market research organization Canalys recently released a report, revealing the strong growth trend of the Middle East smartphone market in 2023. Data shows that in the fourth quarter of 2023, smartphone shipments in the Middle East (excluding Turkey) reached a staggering 12.2 million units, a 24% increase from the same period last year. Throughout 2023, smartphone shipments in the region climbed to 42.5 million units, achieving a significant growth of 11% compared with 2022.

Samsung still holds the top position in shipments, but its market dominance is no longer as stable as in previous years. At the same time, Transsion Holdings (whose brands include Tecno, Infinix, iTel), Xiaomi (including Redmi and Poco) and Apple performed well in shipments in the fourth quarter. Competition among them is extremely fierce, and the market structure may change. .

Canalys analysis believes that various sales activities at the end of the quarter, such as the grand Dubai Shopping Festival, as well as Black Friday and Yellow Friday promotions organized by Amazon and Noon, have played a positive role in promoting sales growth. It is particularly worth mentioning that the UAE market performed particularly well, with a growth rate of 22%, although this is still a small growth rate in the entire Middle East.

Xiaomi is actively expanding its physical store presence in the UAE market. For example, the number of Xiaomi mobile phone stores in the well-known retailer Sharaf DG has rapidly increased from the original 4 to 12. Among them, popular mobile phone models such as Redmi 12C have been enthusiastically sought after by consumers.

The Iraqi market also showed strong growth momentum, with shipments increasing by an astonishing 86%. This is mainly due to the precise marketing activities carried out by Transsion Holdings and Xiaomi targeting young consumer groups. On the other hand, the Honor brand's Xa and Xb series and flagship models such as Magic 5 Pro have also received increasing attention in markets such as Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

Although Motorola did not rank among the top five in this statistics, its growth performance in the Middle East was impressive, with a growth rate of 49%. Motorola mobile phones have sales layout in many countries in the Middle East and Africa, and plan to further expand to more than ten new markets, showing strong expansion momentum.

Looking forward, Canalys is optimistic about the development of the Middle East smartphone market in 2024. Analysts generally believe that the booming tourism industry will become one of the important driving forces for market growth. Manish Pravinkumar, senior consultant at Canalys, noted: “In the long term, the upcoming launch of the unified tourist visa for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), possibly in 2024 or 2025, is expected to attract more tourists to the Middle East. This will be beneficial. Several industries are growing, especially tourism-related service industries. And as the tourism industry booms, the demand for the latest smartphone devices and technology will continue to grow."