If you think there's an iPhone everywhere you look in the UAE, you are not far off.
The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has revealed the most popular mobile phone handsets in the UAE during the second quarter of 2017, and Apple dominates the rankings.
This won't come as much of a surprise, but what is noticeable is that the older iPhone 6 (3.1 per cent market share) is being used more widely than the iPhone 7 (2.3 per cent market share), showing that consumers are not necessarily upgrading to the latest model.
The advance in Apple's smartphones has been incremental in the past few years, with little to tempt consumers to part with another Dh3,000 or so.
However, this could be about to change, with the iPhone 8 set to be unveiled in San Francisco on September 12.
_______________
Read more:
Samsung unveils Galaxy Note 8 as it looks to move on from Note 7 debacle
Nokia 8 offers consumers the familiar rather than the spectacular
_______________
And more releases are expected from the tech giant in the form of the iPhone 7s and 7s Plus.
Aside from a faster processor and tweaked camera, the iPhone 8 could feature an edge-to-edge display with no home button, plus facial recognition technology.
Apple's forthcoming event comes a couple of weeks after Samsung unveiled its Galaxy Note 8 phone.
The new device is set to go on sale on September 15 as the South Korean company hopes it can move on from the disastrous Note 7 episode in which the smartphone was recalled globally and then canned due to battery fires.
Although the TRA reported that 34.5 per cent of all handsets registered on UAE mobile networks in the second quarter were manufactured by Samsung, none of the company's flagship phones were ranked in the top eight most popular.
Nokia handsets were the second most popular with a presence of 22.9 per cent as it continues to dominate the budget feature phone segment. Apple meanwhile was third with a share of 15.5 per cent followed by Lenovo with 5.4 per cent, and Huawei with 3.2 per cent.
Samsung's overall popularity is in keeping with global market share data. In its most recently published report, research firm Gartner said that Samsung's global market share in the first quarter was 20.7 per cent, compared to Apple's 13.7 per cent.