Android in Pakistan

android-logo-whiteDeveloped by Google, the Linux-based Android operation system for smartphones has been gaining immense popularity in the mobile market. It has received significant attention from customers in Pakistan’s growing mobile market.

In terms of mobile phone users Pakistan ranks 8th worldwide and 5th in Asia. In a world having 5.6 billion mobile-phone users, China tops the ranking by having the maximum number of mobile phone users followed by India, United States, Indonesia, Brazil, Russia, Japan and Pakistan.

Nearly 67% of the Pakistan’s population uses mobile phones and 23% of them own Smartphones. Although the overall share of Smartphones is comparatively lower, it is reckoned to increase significantly.

In Pakistan, all sorts of latest Android phones are available in the market including the most popular sets ranked by PC World i.e. Samsung Galaxy Nexus, HTC One X, Rezound, T-Mobile MyTouch 4G Slide, Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX and Samsung Epic Touch 4G.

The android phone market caters both economical and costly sets and includes cheap sets like Galaxy Y and HTC Explorer as well as latest expensive sets like HTC One X and Galaxy NOTE etc. The available phone sets range from prices as low as Rs. 12,000 (Samsung i5500 Galaxy 5) to Rs 79,990 (Sharp Aquos 3D SH8298U). It has been intimated that the best selling set in market is Samsung Galaxy SII.

Android penetration in Pakistan can be observed from the fact that Pakistan Air Force (PAF) manufactured and introduced Android tablet, PACPAD. Previously, PAF also launched their net-book and an e-book reader as well. Being initially manufactured at Kamra, the introduction of PACPAD is aimed to provide cheaper solutions to local consumers. Currently, PACPAD is available for display and selling at following points:

  • Kamra: PAC Commissary, ARF PAC Kamra
  • Rawalpindi: Mobile Plus – Shop No. 15, Singapore Plaza, Bank Road, Saddar, Rawalpindi.

Most downloaded Android apps in Pakistan are iQuran, CamScanner, Advanced TaskKiller, AccuWeather and Barcode Scanner. Barcode Scanner is the only one amongst them having listed in top 50 downloaded applications internationally.

Globally, top downloaded applications are Temple Run, Instagram, Tubemate Youtube Downloader, WiFi unlocker, Mario Kart Racing, Hackers Hope Pro, Number Book, Facebook for Android and Adobe Flash Player 11 etc.

Based on monthly statistics by Google, the top countries in downloading android apps are:

  1. South Korea
  2. Hong Kong
  3. Taiwan
  4. United States
  5. Singapore
  6. Sweden
  7. Israel
  8. Denmark
  9. Netherlands
  10. Norway

Most of android application developments come from United States, United Kingdom, India, Netherlands and Spain.


  • For the best utilization of your android smartphones you must have 3G data services to enjoy it fully, but sadly here we have worst Edge service providers, I am living in Islamabad, tried every connection & now I am stick to Telenor as its Edge is much better & reasonable but again I am unable to use cloud services or other services which requires 3G. It is must in my opinion.

  • Without the 3g and 4g connection most android devices are a waste
    I have been using sgs2 undoubtly its a powerful phone but with the limited connectivity of wifi it feels as thou its a waste of resources to have such an amazing device…..

    The reason pakistan doesnt ranks the downloads is that appstore has a limited apps and most of those apps are targetted for the international audience but i did managed to find a few apps made by pakistanis for pakistanis n m sure in the comming years as out it industry would grow so will the apps

    But if the networks dont upgrade soon to 4g we would be wasting resourced on smartphones

    • Yar dur fitay haal! Tarey jaisey hai jo criticise he kertay hai aur kuch nahe. Istmaal ke hai kiya? Production mai ja ker hisa liya hai kiya?

      • No I haven’t used the said tablet neither had any role in its development. But I am pretty sure PAF doesn’t have the capacity to build tablets. I would readily believe if it was some sort of equipment related to air force which it is not!
        Developing a tablet (or any technology or equipment) would need a lot of R&D and vertical and horizontal market integration. OTOH, assembling components and branding them your way is another ballgame and can even be done in your back yard. Look at ebay and you will find tons of similar cheap tablets being manufactured in every other Chinese town.

        • Totally agree with فیصل.. I am in China nowadays & recently bought a local company-made 8-inch Tablet PC having more than 80% functionality of iPad, including 3G, running on Android 2.3, upgradable to 4.0, ARM 1.5G processor, 512MB Ram (for reference see ONDA VI30), costing me around 12000 in PKR. PAC-PAD is infact bearing much lower specifications than this, & very similar to a lot of other, much cheaper such devices in China..

      • Mr. Pakistani, it is people like yours who believe blindly anything related to to your ‘pak’ fauj. Get some mind of your own.

  • Google’s Android is a perfect OS for smart phones and tablet PCs due to its fastest speed and latest technology.
    And there are tons of android apps available in the app store. But the problem is that there are only few affordable android mobiles available in the market.

  • its my opinion that windows is better os than andriod in terms of relibility just like apple os.

  • Yar 3G lay ao ab koe acha kam Pakistan m time par ni hota smartphone is crap without a good network

  • Android acha OS ha lkn relibel nae ha..Android ka koe set bhe net use p 3 to 4 hours bad btry low da deta ha.jb k cellfone ki main cheez he battry ha…agr ap k pas android smart fone ho to ap ko aik or nokia 1202 bhe rakhna paarhta ha :p

    • I am using Android since 3 years, and never had any Battery issue, my average battery spin is 3 days.
      you need common sense to use the smart phone (not just android)

      • Coming from Symbian quite a while ago, I can say Android has terrible battery life. Unless you turn off the data connection (both 3G and wifi), GPS, etc., you will hardly last a full day. without the data connection, there’s no point using Android I guess.

        • Well, of course you should turn off 3G and GPS. Turning off 3G will prevent the phone from trying 3G data connections (save battery life). Turning off GPS when you don’t need it, well, it’s obvious why you should do this.

          Actually, I don’t turn off GPS but I still last over 24 hours but barely because of the background sync. If I turn that off at night, it’ll last even longer. Also, be sure to turn off wifi if you are not going to be in range (like travelling outdoors for most of the day). There’s also the feature to make it turn off wifi if it is idle — turn that off, and it won’t spend any time scanning when you try to use the browser or other network apps.

          • Thanks Shahid
            I have been using some of these tweaks already but still, 3 days seems a long stretch.
            Thanks in any case, I am still trying to search the wifi feature you mentioned- turning off itself when idle.

            • On the wireless networks settings, press the menu button and select advanced. For me the setting is called “Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep”. I have that set to always. I think the default was make the phone shut off wifi after a few minutes, but that meant that every time I woke the device up it would take a while to scan for networks. Scanning was expensive.

    • Yes mr xahid….i have no senese to use smart fone…if i use only call and sms and 0 britness no wifi no blutooth no gps than it made three days…..

      to jb srf call or sms he krna ha to nokia 1202 q na use kroo:d

  • Admin Please update:
    PAF has made another Tablet with INNAVTEK name “PAC-PAD Takhti 7“ that will be powered with Android 4.0 ICS.
    I am not sure if it is officially launched but some details are available at:

    http://www.cpmc.pk/products/pac-pad-takhti-7/

    As far as Android in Pakistan market is concern than I`m sure everyone will love to have android if there is 3G in Pakistan.

  • Telecom companies must uplift their services and features to get maximum out of the android.


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