Highest user of Smartphones, UAE will open new doors for BIG DATA players

Posted On March 12, 2014

Posted by Expotrade Middle East

According to a report from Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research of UAE, polls published for the year 2013 by the American website “Mashable” stated that three out of four people in the United Arab Emirates own a smartphone making the country rank first globally in the use of smartphones. Saudi Arabia has been ranked third while Britain ranked ninth in the world. Surprisingly, with only 56.4% of penetration of the smart phones, the United States of America was ranked 13th.

The mobile market continues to be aggressively competitive in the UAE with prices dropping, new and advanced smart phones replacing the old ones every quarter and faster and more reliable wireless networks getting implemented. This can be one of the many reasons for consumers specially the youth to be connected and use trendy phones.

Increasing from 61% in 2012 to 74% in 2013, the number of smartphone users in UAE continues to grow and with the government’s initiatives to create smarter cities like Vision 2021, the penetration will just get higher.

The survey also noted that the Middle East’s largest Arab state, Saudi Arabia ranked first globally with 94% users accessing internet daily through smartphones followed by United States and Britain while UAE was positioned third with 91% smartphone web users.

These results further imply the growth of data in the region making the business analytics market bullish in the Middle East. Dubai’s smart city initiative, brainchild of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum is yet another boost to the big data private players to integrate systems and work together with the public institutions.

Meanwhile on March 2nd, 2014, Etisalat announced its partnership with SAP to deliver a comprehensive range of enterprise mobility services and solutions to businesses of all sizes in the UAE. This will offer companies a lower entry cost for enterprise-grade mobility management with faster time to market, thereby minimizing the cost and risk of implementing and maintaining a mobility infrastructure. They also offer flexibility and scalability to any organization, geography and usage model.

4G still being nascent in the market, the country is already gearing up for the 5th generation networks that will generate and deliver greater data opening up new possibilities to create smart cities and smarter citizens.

Giving insights on such new developments, latest projects and government’s plan to use data to create smart cities, Smart Data Summit 2014 will be held on 19th and 20th May, 2014 at the Sofitel Dubai The Palm Resort and Spa.