Samsung, Huawei Dominate 83% of Iran Android Phone Market

Since smuggled cellphones until recently had a 95% share of the local market, reports like the one Bazaar publishes on its website are the only source to roughly know the pulse of the mobile phone market.

Since most Iranian Android phone users have the Bazaar app installed on their handsets, the data can be expanded to the market as a whole.

According to Bazaar, Samsung and Huawei have consolidated their footprint in the smartphone market. The company reports that 51% of its users have handsets produced by the South Korean tech giant Samsung which translates into 17.8 million users. Samsung’s Galaxy J5 has the biggest share.

Next comes the China-made Huawei with a 32% share (11.2 million), LG 8% (2.8 million) and HTC 3% (1 million). Sony, Lenovo and Asus each have 1% share.

Samsung’s low-end smartphones Galaxy J series, which are made with low-cost hardware and have an average performance, have the biggest share (22%). The most popular models in the series are J5 (9%), J7 (7%), J1 (4%) and J3 (2%). Two models of its upper mid-range Android smartphones namely Galaxy A3 and A7 are also among the popular Android phones, each with a 2% share.

Huawei XE8 (3%) and G7 (2%) are the Chinese company’s most popular models in the market.

Samsung has an official representative in Iran and has established after-sales service centers in major cities. The company’s direct presence in the country in addition to the wide range of products offered by the company explains why smartphones produced by the prominent South Korean firm are so popular in Iran.

Android phones produced by Samsung are of better quality compared to their Chinese counterparts.

Samsung is the leading smartphone maker worldwide. In 2016, the company’s market share of the global market was close to 20% with Apple as its closest competitor (18.3%). For full-year 2016, 1.47 billion smartphones were sold around the world by all brands.

According to Iran’s Telecom Ministry statistics, Apple iPhones have an 11% share of the smartphone market. It is estimated that 6 million Iranians have an iPhone.

Popular Apps

The most downloaded applications during the three months  between (Sep. 23 - Dec. 21) were messengers with 1.7 million downloads followed by video streaming services (837,000), mobile tools (635,000), shopping (610,000), social media platforms (548,000), photo editing apps (530,000) and transportation including ride-hailing and ride-sharing apps (511,000).

The report indicates that every week on average 600 people downloaded a messenger app and about 1,000 updated the messengers they had already had installed on their handsets. Every week on average, 400 people downloaded social media apps and about 900 updated their apps.

Bazaar’s report includes some interesting points. For instance, the company’s mobile tools sales' peak time was 10 in the morning while games sold better around 9 in the evening.