KSA: The mobile market in Saudi Arabia is reaching saturation with a mobile penetration rate of 186% in 2011. The total numbers of mobile subscribers were nearly 54 million, from 51 million in 2010.
We estimate that the subscriber base will increase to 71.9 million by 2017 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 4.9% with the penetration likely to reach 221.7%. Revenue growth rate in the Saudi Arabian market has been declining due to falling ARPU and increasing mobile subscriber penetration rate and is expected to be at 2.4% in 2016 at a CAGR of 4.2%.
The Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) market in Saudi Arabia was estimated at USD 155.2 million for the year 2010. ERP and CRM form a significant portion of the total enterprise application market in the region. The need to automate and integrate enterprise-wide resources has led to higher adoption of ERP in Saudi Arabia.
For 2010, the ERP market was primarily driven by government, manufacturing, retail and distribution, and telecom sectors signing in for large scale implementations, which contributed to 60% of the total ERP revenue. ERP market in Saudi Arabia is expected to grow at a CAGR of about 18% to reach revenues of $494.4 million by 2017.
UAE: A key element in the strategy of the UAE government has been to get the legal framework right. The UAE telecommunication market has grown from $8.2 billion in 2005 to $13.6 billion in 2011, achieving a 20% annual growth rate. Much of this has been due to the new legal framework with Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) issuing several regulations to foster advancements in the ICT sector.
The UAE continues to have two operators, Etisalat and Du. Each operator offers fixed-line, mobile and internet services though Etisalat remains the much larger provider of fixed line and internet services. The mobile penetration rate is over 200% and is likely to reach 250% by the year 2015 and 270% by 2017.
Together, the operators have over 10 million subscribers. Since the market is already mature and saturated, Frost & Sullivan estimates unsteady growth in mobile subscribers, with the subscriber base expected to increase at a CAGR of 3.7% to reach 15.67 million by 2017.
Bahrain: The smallest market in the Middle East by population size but it is also one of the most competitive. It was one of the foremost to liberalise its market and have a well-established regulatory authority. Bahrain has a 188% mobile penetration rate and over 1.6 million subscribers.
Qatar: The Qatar telecommunications market has witnessed tremendous growth; largely driven by sustained progress in the mobile market and recent expansion of access to high-speed broadband internet services. The market totaled $1.7 billion at the end of 2010 and was largely dominated by the mobile segment, which made up two-thirds of the total telecommunications services market. The mobile industry has witnessed a period of rapid growth with subscriber penetration expected to reach 210% by 2015, up from 160% in 2011.
Egypt: The mobile subscriber base in Egypt has been growing steadily year-on-year. The total number of mobile subscribers in Egypt as of 2011 stood at nearly 74 million recording a year-onyear increase of 20-30%. Frost & Sullivan estimates that the subscriber base will increase to 97.3 million by 2017 at a CAGR of 4.7%. As of 2011, the mobile penetration had reached to over 93% and is anticipated to reach more than 113% by 2017.
