A total of 29.75 million mobile phones were shipped across the Middle East region during the third quarter of 2015, marking a 4.4% increase from the previous quarter, according to IDC.

The growth was spearheaded by the UAE, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia with respective on-quarter increases of 11.2%, 10.2%, and 5.7%. Combined, these three countries accounted for over 30% of the region's mobile shipments for the quarter, IDC said.

The smartphone share of the region's mobile phone market continued to rise throughout 2015, and the same trend was visible in the third quarter with the figure rising to 65.3%.

Android-based models accounted for more than 87% of the region's smartphone shipments in the third quarter, an increase of 7.3pp on quarter, IDC added.

Samsung, Apple, and Huawei remained the top three smartphone vendors in the region during the quarter with a combined share of over 60%. Samsung alone accounted for 41% of the region's smartphone shipments.

Fourth-placed Lenovo saw its share rise to 4.8% after recording an 41.2% increase in its shipments from the previous quarter.

IDC expects mobile phone shipments for 2016 as a whole in the Middle East to cross the 123 million mark, with smartphones accounting for over 70% of that figure.