Apple is focused on expanding into new markets, and after its success in China, it seems the next focus is on the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region.
According to analysts at Counterpoint Research, Apple saw its market share in the region climb 3.9 percent in the third quarter of 2015, compared to 2.2 percent during the same period one year earlier. Overall, iPhone shipments grew 133 percent on-year in 2015 to enter the top 5 smartphone brands in the area.
Other top brands include Samsung, which saw its market share decline from 50 percent to 41 percent, local brand Tecno, Huawei, Meizu, Gionee, and Lenovo.
The Middle East and Africa market is viewed by many as the next logical ground for smartphone expansion. While Apple is never going to be focused primarily on the overall market share of its iPhones (at least not if it means cutting profit margins), the number of buyers in the region has increased enormously in 2015.
Counterpoint claims that the mobile phone market in the region grew 23 percent on year in the third quarter, with the smartphone segment growing even more rapidly at 31 percent. To put that in perspective, its’s close to 3x faster than the global smartphone growth.
Former Apple CEO John Sculley has previously looked to take advantage of the trend by launching a new lineup of budget smartphones in the Middle East, although he admitted that Steve Jobs would likely not have approved of his low-cost strategy.
After we labelled Dubai the land that tech forgot, this year also saw the opening of the company’s first United Arab Emirates store. Apple has additionally been in touch with potential Iranian distributors, capitalizing on research suggesting that the country’s 80 million residents have an affinity for Western brands such as Apple.
Could 2016 be Apple’s year for the Middle East and Africa region? We’ll have to wait and see, but signs are certainly looking positive.
