ABU DHABI // Meet the country's most popular phone.
It's not an iPhone, or the latest Samsung Galaxy. It's not even a BlackBerry, despite their ubiquity.
In fact, it's not any kind of smartphone. You can't use it to access the internet or check your email. Forget touchscreens – it doesn't even have a colour screen.
Launched in March 2010, the Nokia 1280 is anything but the epitome of high-tech. But it is a big hit, accounting for 3.08 per cent of all the phones in the UAE.
What it does have is a long-lasting battery. Its small, black-and-white display and lack of power-draining features allows it to handle eight and half hours of calls on a single charge, or more than three weeks on standby – a far cry from most smartphones, which need charging at least once a day.
And it is cheap. At Dh70, you could buy 32 of them for the price of one iPhone 4S.
Mohamed Elsaeed, the deputy director at Hello Future Mobiles in Abu Dhabi, said the phone was one of the shop's bestsellers.
"It is a very popular phone, he said. "We sell about 50 a month. Many labourers buy this phone because it is not expensive."
Equally popular in his shop is the slightly more advanced Nokia 101, which can hold two sim cards and a memory card. It costs about Dh20 more.
You don't have to go far to find someone who swears by their 1280, as one in 30 people in the country has one in their pocket.
Muhammad Nawaz, an Abu Dhabi taxi driver from Pakistan, has had one for more than a year.
"It was not so expensive, but if it falls, if I drop it, it does not break," he said. "The signal is very good. In all of Abu Dhabi and in our accommodation, the Nokia still has good signal, when other phones do not work. Nokia is the best I think – easy to use."
According to the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), Nokia's wide range of budget phones give it a huge share of the market – accounting for half of all registered handsets.
BlackBerry and Samsung each have 10.7 per cent and Apple comes in fourth with 8.4 per cent. The iPhone 4S is the second-most popular handset, with 2.93 per cent of the market.
Nokia, although clearly finding a niche in the budget market, have not been so successful with smartphones, struggling to keep up with the pace of the world-leaders.
Although by no means unsuccessful, Nokia's Lumia range, which uses Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system, has yet to match the dizzying sales figures of rivals Samsung and Apple, despite being up to Dh450 cheaper.
Apple's iOS continues to be the most popular smartphone operating system, with BlackBerry and Android a close second and third.
"The report provides an interesting snapshot of the UAE's mobile handset market share which has very distinct characteristics in terms of consumer adoption," said Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim, director general of the TRA.
Even though the technology is not as cutting-edge as that of some of its rivals, Nokia is not resting on its laurels and is due to release a new budget phone soon.
Expected to cost about Dh75, the 105 is similar in appearance and functionality to the 1280, but boasts even more impressive battery life. It is said able to last 35 days on standby on one charge.
ksinclair@thenational.ae
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-finals, first leg
Liverpool v Roma
When: April 24, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Anfield, Liverpool
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 2, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
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Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
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Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
