In Lebanon, the smartphone market is rapidly growing, predominantly on Android which is in the lead, and iOS, which is just a few steps behind; a quick look at the iOS store reveals trends across the market.

While the top applications on the iOS App store are constantly changing, we noticed a couple of weeks ago that the applications in the lead are mostly oriented towards entertainment and gaming oriented. So those look to expand in the Lebanese market or target Lebanese users may want to develop in these categories.

Here is the ranking of the top ten free applications listed in Lebanon last week:

1. Dimensions & My Measures allows users to actually measure whatever they choose to. The app is actually a paid application offered for free by AppGratis.
    
2. PhotoMagic allows users to edit pictures and add filters provided by the famous Instagram as well as other services.
    
3. Temple Run 2 is a casual game.
    
4. Tube Downloader Pro gives you the ability to download a video from YouTube and store it on your smartphone.
    
5. PipeRoll is a popular game.
    
6. AppGratis offers users the ability to test any app in the App Store for free, once a day.  
    
7. Grand Cinemas Lebanon allows you to book movie tickets at local theatres directly and lists the most watched movies as well as those coming soon.
    
8. The famous Youtube application allows you to watch published videos on the platform. It likely remains popular because iPhone has removed it from being a native app.
    
9. The new Anghami application allows you to stream Arabic and international music and share it with your friends on social media.
    
10. Last by not least, Moves tallies your daily movements as well as the distance you cross from home to work or other places.

In the paid application section on the store, WhatsApp is still the most popular app, with 470 ratings.

For Social Networking, the first ten applications are:

1. Nekat FreeStyle, a joke application
    
2. Facebook Messenger, for messaging on Facebook
    
3. PrivateMSG, for coded messages that operate on SMS, iMessage and WhatsApp and other communication platforms.
    
4. Find My Friends, allows you to discover the location of friends who use iOS on their devices.  
    
5. Viber, offers free calling to those who have the app.
    
6. Twitter, is a social network that focuses on 140-character updates.
    
7. Skype, is a messaging service that allows videos and audio calls in addition to chatting with multiple persons at once.
    
8. Tango, offers free video calls between users of the app.
    
9. Facebook, is a social networking tool.
    
10. LinkedIn, allows its users to list their professional skills and allows employers to find employees.

Even though the most popular application among social networks is a joke application (Nekat Freestyle), having Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn appear in the top 10 is a sign that all content producers can take advantage of the growing popularity of mobile by posting on these social networks.