Nokia Retains Top Spot in UAE - Analyst Blog

As per reports by the UAE's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, Nokia Corporation NOK recorded the highest handset sales in UAE in fourth-quarter 2013. Despite losing market share, the Finnish handset manufacturer continues to dominate the country's mobile phone market with a 51.5% share.

Samsung and BlackBerry Limited BBRY with a respective of 17.9% and 9% market share are significantly behind Nokia. Nokia 1280 is the highest selling feature phone with a 3.08% market share followed by Apple Inc.'s AAPL iPhone 4S, accounting for 2.93% share. Likewise, Nokia's outdated operating platform Symbian is widely used followed by Apple's iOS and BlackBerry.

However, the U.A.E. smartphone market is mainly dominated by iPhone 4S followed by iPhone 4 and Samsung SII. Moreover, 51% of the newly registered handsets on UAE's carrier, during the fourth quarter of 2013, were smartphones. Hence, we believe that such strong smartphone sales in the nation hint at the possibility of stiff competition for Nokia from big smartphone manufacturers like Samsung and Apple.

Nokia's handset business has a strong presence in the Middle East and India as smartphone penetration in these countries is quite low. However, with the deployment of 3G network services, the demand for smartphones is on the rise. As a result, Nokia, which lacks a popular operating platform, started to lose market traction in these emerging nations.

Nokia has decided to divest its core mobile handset business and services division to Microsoft Corp. MSFT. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2014. Post the divestiture, NSN will become the company's chief business unit.

Nokia currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).