The Azerbaijani information and communication technology sector (ICT) is one of the most dynamically developing sectors of the national economy due its profitability and total profitability of this business.
Information and communication services worth 372.8 million manat were rendered for Azerbaijan's population and organizations in January-March 2016 or 8.9 percent more than in January-March 2015.
Some 80.7 percent of income received through the sector accounted for the non-state enterprises during this period.
Around 71.6 percent of the total volume of information and communication services accounted for the services rendered to the population.
Some 50.8 percent of a total volume of obtained income accounted for mobile services.
Mobile communication
A volume of revenues obtained from mobile services in Azerbaijan hit 189.3 million manat in January-March 2016.
The income in the mobile communication sector declined by 8.2 percent compared to January-March 2015.
According to the Global Stats statistical center, as of January-March 2016, Azerbaijan reduced sales of Apple mobile devices by 6.7 percent, while sales of Samsung mobile devices increased by four percent.
Samsung devices rank first on the Azerbaijani market of mobile devices with a 53 percent share. A market share of Samsung devices increased by about eight percent in the country compared to the same period of 2015.
As of April 1, 2016, the share of Apple devices was 18.5 percent on the Azerbaijani market or by 6.4 percent less compared to the same period of 2015. Apple ranks second on the Azerbaijani market of mobile devices.
Nokia's share decreased by 0.6 percent in January-March 2016. By popularity Nokia ranks third among mobile devices in Azerbaijan. Nokia has eight percent of the market. Nokia's share decreased by 10.4 percent compared to the same period of 2015.
The mobile devices made by unknown manufacturers (mostly Chinese ones) rank fourth with a 4.1 percent share. These manufacturers are followed by Huawei - 3.8 percent, Sony - 3.7 percent, LG - 2.4 percent, HTC - 2.2 percent, Alcatel - 0.88 percent and Lenovo - 0.8 percent and others.
Operating system market
Android is the most popular operating system in Azerbaijan. As of March 1, 2016, its share increased by 8.2 percent on the Azerbaijani operating system market.
As of April 1, it ranks first with a 36.9 percent share on the operating system market.
Android's share increased by 37.5 percent on the Azerbaijani operating system market compared to the same period of 2015.
A Microsoft Windows 7 market share decreased by 5 percent in Azerbaijan in March 2016.
Windows 7 is one of the most popular operating systems in Azerbaijan and ranks second (as of April 1, 2016) on the operating system market with a 31.5 percent share. A Windows 7 share on the Azerbaijani operating system market reduced by 25.1 percent compared to January-March 2015.
iOS with a 9.5 percent share ranked third. iOS market decreased by 1.7 percent in March 2016, Windows XP - 4.26 percent, Windows 8.1 - 4.2 percent, Windows 10 - 3.24 percent, Windows 8 - 2.2 percent and others.
PC market
According to the Global Stats statistical center, as of March 2016, a 5.8-percent decline in stationary desktop sale was registered in Azerbaijan.
The market share of stationary desktop computers hit 48.8 percent in Azerbaijan as of late March 2016.
This market segment dropped by 20.4 percent in the country compared to the same period of 2015.
As of March, a 7.1 percent growth was recorded in the market share for portable computers such as notebooks and netbooks in Azerbaijan. The market share of laptops in Azerbaijan makes up 46.6 percent as of April 1. This segment increased by 37.1 percent compared to early April 2015.
Some 4.5 percent accounted for the tablet computer market. This market segment decreased by 2.3 percent in March 2016.
е-signature
The total number of electronic digital signatures (e-signatures) issued by the Azerbaijani National Certification Services Center in January-March 2016 increased by over 10 percent and hit 42,561 as of April 1, 2016.
The state bodies were provided with 27,282 e-signatures, 7,284 e-signatures were issued to the legal entities and 7,995 to citizens.
E-signature simplifies the citizens' access to e-services of the state organizations, which are available on the "Electronic Government" portal (e-gov.az).
Some 424 services of the total number of approved electronic services (461) are available on the "electronic government" (e-gov.az) portal. The total number of e-services placed on the websites of Azerbaijani state organizations is 498.
The e-signature with a three-year period of its use costs 18 manat for Azerbaijani citizens. The e-signature for legal and physical entities engaged in entrepreneurial activity, costs 36 manat and 72 manat respectively, while 80 manat for employees of state institutions.
The access to the portal is obtained with the help of the identity data of the private entrepreneurs and citizens, verification data (login and password), as well as mobile authentication system, which can be obtained in an electronic form after registering on the portal.
Internet resourcesSome 24,882 Internet resources have been registered in the national domain zone .az. As of January-March 2016, the number of Internet resources registered in the domain zone .az increased by 1.2 percent.
Some 23,164 websites of the total number of the websites registered in the domain zone account for the Internet resources registered in the top-level domain, which is by 1.4 percent more compared to early 2016.
The most popular second-level domain is .com.az. Some 1,033 websites have been registered there (one percent decrease).
edu.az with 245 websites is the most popular third-level domain. As of January-March, the number of the websites registered in .edu.az domain increased by 5.3 percent.
The national .az zone officially began operating Aug. 25, 1993.
.az domain registration costs 20 manat. The annual maintenance also costs 20 manat.
The share of Google Chrome web browser decreased by 3.2 percent in Azerbaijan in January-March 2016. Chrome is the most popular browser in Azerbaijan, which owns 56.5 percent of the market. This corresponds to the index in the same period of 2015.
As of January-March 2016, the Opera browser share decreased by 3.1 percent. But it was 13.7 percent as of April 1 or by 3.4 percent less compared to January-March 2015.
According to the center, the number of Android browser users decreased by 3.5 percent in January-March. Android's market share hits 8.7 percent in Azerbaijan. The number of installations of this browser decreased by 4.7 percent compared to the same period of 2015.
The rest market has been distributed among Safari browsers (7.9 percent), Samsung Internet (3.5 percent), Mozilla Firefox (1.7 percent), Internet Explorer (1.4 percent), Yandex (2.3 percent), UC Browser (one percent), and others.
The activity of Facebook users increased by 0.8 percent in Azerbaijan in January-March 2016, Global Stats said.
As of early April 2016, the share of Facebook in Azerbaijan amounted to 91.6 percent or by 10.7 percent more than in the same period of 2015. By popularity Facebook ranked first on the Azerbaijani social media market.
Twitter with a 4.4 percent market share ranks second. Twitter users' activity increased by 9.3 percent for the first three months of 2016. Pinterest social network ranks third with a 1.14 percent market share, Tumblr - one percent, VKontakte - 0.6 percent, Google+ - 0.3 percent, Youtube - 0.3 percent and others.