To mark GlobalWebIndex’s session at today’s Festival of Media conference in Dubai, our chart for Wednesday takes a look at how device importance in MENA compares to the global average.
Across all 34 of our countries, it’s the smartphone that consumers are most likely to pick as their most important device for getting online – but only just. While mobiles are picked by 34%, laptops and desktops are hot on their heels (scoring 33% and 30% respectively).
Within Saudi Arabia, UAE and Turkey, however, we see quite a different picture. Here, smartphones have already opened up a clear lead over the other devices, with the numbers for desktops seeing a dramatic decline.
Along with APAC, that means countries within the MENA region remain at the forefront of mobile trends. As we discuss in our Mobile Tipping Point report, that’s also why Saudi and the UAE were the very first of our 34 countries to see consumers spending more time on their mobiles than on all other devices combined – a trend we can expect to see happening in other regions too before the end of the current decade.