“The Middle Eastern mobile markets have undergone a lot of change in recent years, as liberalisation has spread throughout the region. This has led to a newly competitive environment and ever-increasing levels of mobile market penetration. Operators and investors need to consider the threats and opportunities presented by this situation.”

Daniel Jones, Research Analyst

The Middle Eastern Mobile Market: trends and forecasts 2007–12 analyses the key trends driving the mobile market in the Middle East. The report presents detailed forecasts of the market up to 2012, covering numbers of subscribers and subscriber mix, ARPU, retail spend and revenue, broken down into detailed categories (countries, technology generations and service types).

The Middle Eastern Mobile Market: trends and forecasts 2007-12 answers your key questions:

-What are the main trends shaping the mobile market in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi -Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere in the region?

-What effect has mobile licensing liberalisation had in the Middle East?

-What are the prospects for market growth over the next five years? Which country markets are likely to host new mobile operators?

-What form will the new entrants take?

-What are the prospects for 3G take-up across the region? -What opportunities exist for those looking to invest in the Middle Eastern mobile market?

-Which countries are likely to take the lead and which are lagging behind?

Who should read this report

Mobile operators: understand how market, competitive and regulatory factors will drive penetration and ARPU levels across Middle Eastern markets; anticipate the adoption cycle of 3G technologies by residential and corporate sectors; gain insight into forecast subscriber numbers by country, market segment, technology or service

Financial analysts: evaluate the structural factors at play at both a regional and national market level; determine when market saturation is likely to occur; use subscriber numbers and ARPU forecasts to model opportunities for operators in consumer, small to medium enterprise (SME), and corporate sectors as well as in the voice, person-to-person messaging and non-P2P data service categories

Wireless infrastructure and handset vendors: quantify the handset market opportunity in the largest regional markets; plan for the adoption of 3G handsets in some of the most technologically advanced Middle Eastern countries

Systems integrators, IT vendors, content providers, application developers: determine the long-term opportunities for infrastructure integration, application development and content provisioning, based on the detailed forecasts of the regional and national market size in various service categories as well as subscriber segments (including SMEs and large corporations)