Middle East smartphone market grows by nearly a quarter despite global sales decline

The smartphone market in the Middle East grew 21 per cent in the third quarter of 2023, despite a global decline in sales. Unexpectedly, Transsion came in at number two on the list of top manufacturers.

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The market leader is Samsung. It has 31 per cent of the market, although sales fell from 4.1 million to 3.8 million smartphones, a decline of 9 per cent. In second place is Transsion. The company, which owns the Tecno, itel and Infinix brands, has a 22 per cent share. Shipments have more than doubled in a year (130%).

Xiaomi and Apple were able to increase smartphone sales by 9% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2022. The Chinese company shipped 2.7 million models, while the US company shipped 0.5 million fewer. They took 15 per cent and 11 per cent of the market respectively.

Rounding out the top five is realme. It was able to increase shipments by 133%. The company sold half a million smartphones and took 4% of the market, which is twice as much as in the base period. All other manufacturers shipped 2 million devices.

Source: Canalys