Samsung reported that for its IT & Mobile unit, of which IT is by far the largest part, the company reported a 57.4 per cent year-on-year drop in operating profit to KRW2.74 trillion (US$2.56 billion) in Q115, on revenue which fell 20.2 per cent to KRW25.89 trillion. But, compared with the prior sequential quarter, operating profit actually increased by 39.8 per cent, on revenue which decreased by 1.5 per cent.

The company attributed the increase in quarter-on-quarter operating profit to decreased marketing expenses and the rollout of its new entry-level and mid-range smartphones.

Much of the company’s future success hinges on the performance of its Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge. But with the launch of the new premium devices, Samsung said that marketing expenses will rise in Q2 to support this.

In the first quarter, Samsung shipped 99 million handsets, of which “mid-80 per cent” were smartphones. The company expects its Q2 performance to be similar, but with a shift in mix following the launch of the new flagships set to improve its average selling price.

The numbers mean that Samsung remains the world’s number one handset vendor. Its smartphone leadership position was also reasserted, after Apple saw a dip following earlier strength thanks to the launch of its new iPhone line – with a single smartphone line, Apple’s performance is more than usually affected by its release timetable.

Tablet sales for Samsung in Q1 were “about nine million”.

Network revenue declined quarter-on-quarter due to decreased investment by overseas operators.

Samsung is looking to drive its 2015 growth by enhancing its product competitiveness and improving R&D efficiency by “streamlining line-ups”.

On a group level, the company reported a net profit of KRW4.63 trillion, down 38.8 per cent year-on-year, on revenue of KRW47.12 trillion, down 12.2 per cent.

Ooredoo Oman today reported that revenues for Q115 were up 12.5 per cent to OMR 59.3 million (US$154 million) year-on-year, driven by increases in both mobile and fixed data revenue.

EBITDA for the quarter amounted to OMR 33.8 million, up 23.8 per cent year-on-year due to higher revenue, while net profit came in at OMR 10.7 million, up 21.6 per cent due to an improvement in EBITDA that was partially off-set by investment in network modernisation and expansion.

Total number of customers grew by 11.6 per cent in Q1 2015 from 2.43 million to 2.71 million.

The fixed service customer base decreased by 11.1 per cent to 58,435 customers in Q115, accounted for by the transition period to a new home broadband technology that is set to bring improved services to Ooredoo customers. The mobile post-paid customer base grew by 5.1 per cent to 199,206 customers, while the prepaid customer base for the quarter was up 12.8 per cent to 2.46 million.

India’s largest mobile operator Bharti Airtel reported that its net income almost doubled for the fiscal year ending March 31, maintaining the growth momentum from Q3 when its profit jumped 135 per cent.

Its profit rose 87 per cent to INR51.8 billion (US$811 million) for the year, with revenue rising 7.3 per cent to INR920 billion. India turnover increased 12 per cent to INR645 billion, with mobile representing 80 per cent of that. Non-voice revenue accounted for 23.7 per cent of mobile revenue – up from 17.4 per cent a year ago.

The company saw sharp gains in data revenue across all regions, but continued pressure on voice pushed aggregated ARPU down except in India. Mobile data turnover in Q4 grew 60 per cent from the previous year.

Airtel, which has operations in 20 countries, said its customer base increased by almost 29 million to 324.4 million.

The company’s subscriber base in 17 African countries grew 10 per cent to 76.2 million, with data customers increasing 30 per cent to 36 million. Non-voice revenue accounted for a quarter of turnover.

Data ARPU rose five per cent, but voice ARPU fell 15 per cent, pushing overall ARPU down 20 per cent to US$4.40. Total revenue from the region fell one per cent to INR269 billion.

The company’s MD and CEO for Africa, Christian de Faria, said Airtel Africa grew revenues by 7.5 per cent in constant currency terms during FY14-15 amidst rather tough economic conditions.

There its customer base grew by 6.8 million and the Airtel Money customer base expanded by 2.7 million. “With 3G operations now in all 17 countries and with 3,088 new 3G sites, data revenues have increased by 61.3 per cent in constant currency terms,” he said.

Airtel’s capex last fiscal year increased 76 per cent to INR186 billion. India accounted for 63 per cent of the total, with capex increasing 94 per cent from the previous year. There it added almost 8,000 base stations, taking its total to nearly 150,000 – one-third of which are 3G.

EBITDA margin rose 1.7 points to 34.2 per cent.

Etisalat is set to raise up to US$500 million through a re-opening of its June 2019 bond, which is expected to price later today, a document from lead arrangers showed.

Price guidance for the issue has been set in the area of 80 basis points over midswaps, the document showed. The bonds will be fungible with those issued earlier in the series after 40 days.

Etisalat, rated Aa3/AA-/A+ by the main credit agencies, said in a statement to the stock exchange that it would issue bonds under its US$7 billion global medium-term note programme. It did not provide any details.

HSBC and National Bank of Abu Dhabi are bookrunners for the bond tap.

Smartphone shipments to the Middle East and Africa saw unprecedented year-on-year growth of 83 per cent in 2014, according to numbers released by International Data Corporation (IDC). Spurred by the increased availability of cheaper models and dual-SIM devices, the global advisory and consulting services firm announced that smartphones accounted for 41.9 per cent of all mobile handset shipments to the region in 2014, up from 27 per cent in 2013, with the overall handset market expanding 19.6 per cent in volume year on year.

Feature phones have been hit hard by the increased availability of more affordable smartphones, with shipments down 4.5 per cent year-on-year in 2014. Indeed, smartphones priced under US$100 captured 20 per cent share of the MEA smartphone market in 2014, up from just five per cent in 2013.

Additionally, market share of smartphones in the US$100–200 price bracket increased eight percentage points in just one quarter, from 25 per cent in Q314 to 33 per cent in Q414. Meanwhile, smartphones priced in the higher-end US$250–500 bracket have seen their share of the overall market fall from 23 per cent in Q313 to 18 per cent in Q414

Although Samsung maintained its number-one position in MEA, its smartphone share fell from 51.5 per cent in 2013 to 43.8 per cent for 2014. Huawei and Apple followed in second and third place with shares of 8.9 per cent and 7.8 per cent, respectively. The same trend can be seen quarter-on-quarter, with Samsung’s share dropping 7.8 points from Q3 to Q4 2014, while Huawei and Apple saw their shares increase 5.1 points and 2.7 points, respectively, over the same period.

Like in other global markets, the MEA market witnessed a massive 58 per cent increase in the shipment of iOS devices in Q414 compared to Q314. Android shipments increased by only 3.8 per cent over the same period, while Blackberry OS continued its declining trend after a temporary increase in Q314.