(Telecompaper) The United Arab Emirates had the world's highest smartphone penetration rate in the first quarter, at 73.8 percent. It was followed by South Korea (73%), Saudi Arabia (72.8%), Singapore (67.5%) and Norway (67.5%), reports Statista, citing Our Mobile Planet by Google. The next ten top countries by mobile penetration, were Australia (64.4%), Sweden (62.9%), Hong Kong (62.8%), UK (62.2%), Denmark (59%), Ireland (57%), Israel (56.6%), US (56.4%), Canada (56.4%) and Spain (55.4%). The survey sampled 1,000 for all countries, except Ireland at 900, and Saudi Arabia and UAE at 500.[Editor's note: The concept of 'smartphone' is somewhat imprecise, as it means different operating systems, features, screen sizes and data speeds to different people.]