18 September 2015.
The Middle East and Africa are two of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world, according to research by Emarketer.
An estimated 606 million people in the region currently have a mobile phone, equivalent to 43% of the population.
This is expected to rise to 789 million people within 4 years, equivalent to 51%.
There is quite large regional variation, however. In the United Arab Emirates, for example, around 80% of the population already has a mobile, compared to less than 40% in Nigeria.
The majority of mobile devices in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are smartphones and tablets, with wealthy young people and people upgrading from feature phones to a cheap smartphones being the driving forces behind smartphone uptake.Â
