It’s a bit of a distortion and over simplification to group all of the Middle East and Africa together here as there are very distinct trends between the various sub regions:

• The countries in the Arabian Gulf have amongst the highest smartphone adoption in the world, though their population make up a small percentage of the overall regional population.
• Those in the Levant region are lower than the Gulf, but more in line with global averages.
• Egypt and the rest of North Africa have their own dynamics.
• Subsaharan Africa exhibits the trends indicated, but even here there are nuances: South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria differ from the rest of the region.