Author Archives: Staff Writer

WildPackets, a US-based provider of advanced network services fault analysis, has appointed Riaz Khan as European sales director. Khan’s brief includes identifying new channel partners in emerging markets such as the Middle East.

PalmOne has added Bluetooth connectivity and a longer lasting battery to its Tungsten E handheld device in a bid to attract more PDA buyers.

Huawei will deploy nation-wide CDMA450 wireless access technology across Nigeria. China Development Bank will provide Nigeria with a loan of US$200 million for this project.

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company has been rated as the strongest luxury hotel brand, according to the 2005 Luxury Brands Status Index survey in the US. Conducted by New York-based Luxury Institute, the survey targeted wealthy consumers with household incomes above $200K and average net worth of at least $2 million. Those surveyed were asked to rate fifteen luxury hotel and resorts brands, including Fairmont, Four Seasons, InterContinental, Le Meridien, Mandarin Oriental and Ritz-Carlton.

Although Saudi Arabia was undoubtedly late in embracing the internet, the Kingdom is now making up for it with an increasing number of end users and companies getting online and reaping the rewards of doing business via the world wide web.

Competition is about to become a reality in Saudi Arabia’s mobile telecommunications market as Etihad Etisalat gears up to take on the might of incumbent Saudi Telecommunications Company. Just which operator will win out is unclear at present, but in the short-term, customers can expect a raft of new deals and services.

Maersk Sealand is to move a number of services from Gioia Tauro, Italy to the new Suez Canal Container Terminal (SCCT) in Port Said, Egypt.

Fast-growing components distribution powerhouse eSys has unveiled a new partner loyalty programme for the Middle East and North Africa region. The new scheme, ePaL, offers a range of goodies for committed customers.

Sun Microsystems Middle East & North Africa, in conjunction with its channel development provider, Tech Access, intends to highlight its growing range of software and Linux solutions at this year’s Gitex Saudi Arabia.

Security software vendor McAfee is enlisting the help of its Saudi Arabian partners to impress upon medium and large business users in the Kingdom the quality and scope of its integrated security solutions.

Value added distributor Adaox will be showcasing its NOD32 Antivirus software at this year’s Gitex Saudi Arabia, which is being held at the Riyadh Exhibition Centre from April 24-28. NOD32 is an award-winning Antivirus system from ESET USA.

Naizak will be showcasing a wide range of information technology services and products at the forthcoming Gitex Saudi Arabia. The company will be providing visitors to the show with information about its consulting, architecture, implementation, systems integration and support services.

Storage giant ramps up its focus on Saudi Arabia by opening an office and working with its partners to promote its information lifecycle management strategy at Gitex Saudi Arabia.

Oracle will be showcasing its products and services at this year’s Gitex exhibition in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in partnership with local integrator Jeraisy Computer & Communications Services (JCCS). The vendor will be paying special attention to healthcare and government sectors at the event. Oracle says these two verticals present enormous growth opportunities for its enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions.

Middle East open source operating system specialist gears up for increased customer demand in the Kingdom by appearing at this year’s Gitex.

Saudi Arabian IT giant Al Falak generated revenues in excess of SAR210 million in 2004, a significant improvement on the SAR191 million it recorded in 2003. However, rather than pause to celebrate its year-on-year revenue growth of 14%, the systems integrator is intent on doing even better in 2005 and is already predicting a 20% increase in revenue.

Intel is set to showcase its latest Centrino mobile technology platform at the forthcoming Gitex. The new mobile platform, which was previously codenamed Sonoma, features office-friendly capabilities.

Arabian Business Machines Company (ABM) is among the many businesses participating at Gitex Saudi Arabia 2005, to be held at the Riyadh Exhibition Centre from April 24-28. ABM, which specialises in merchant wholesale distribution of office equipment, will be using the event to showcase notebooks and projectors from Toshiba.

Leading removable storage solution vendor Imation will be showcasing two of its latest consumer storage options at this year’s show with its Saudi Arabian partners, Jarir Bookstore and Al Falak. The first of the new devices to be demonstrated at the show is Imation’s 2Gbyte USB flash drive.

Sony’s Saudi Arabian distributor, Modern Electronics Co. Ltd, will be showcasing the latest digital lifestyle connectivity products the vendor has to offer this April as it takes its stand at Gitex Saudi Arabia.

Axiom Telecom, one of the largest mobile and wireless communication product distributors and retailers in the Middle East, will use Gitex Saudi Arabia 2005 as a launch pad for popular mobile devices from i-mate, Motorola, Nokia and Sony Ericsson.

Microtop Computer (MTC) will be taking Orange’s wide range of products to Gitex Saudi Arabia as it looks to take full advantage of the huge IT growth currently taking place in the Kingdom.

Jarir Bookstore is looking to showcase the wide range of products it carries from international vendors at this year’s Gitex. Among those offerings slated to appear at the show are solutions from Toshiba, Acer, HP, IBM, and Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC).

HP has kicked off a 14-country pan-EMEA imaging and printing solutions tour targeted at channel partners. The first event, taking place today in Dubai, has pulled in partners from around the region for an enticing mix of training, workshops, and demonstrations.

Networking vendor 3Com will highlight its IP telephony, security, switching and routing solutions at the forthcoming Gitex exhibition in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). In addition, the company will showcase a range of networking solutions in partnership with its Saudi Arabian dealers and distributors.

Far Eastern hardware giant promises to deliver innovative products and unveil the identity of its latest partner in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Power protection firm Tripp Lite intends to become the premier brand in its field in Saudi Arabia. As such, the vendor is pulling out all the stops, including assembling its golden resellers at this year’s Gitex Shopper, part of the Gitex Saudi Arabia 2005 exhibition.

Canon Middle East is taking the partner route to this year’s Gitex Saudi Arabia as it intends to make its presence felt with the help of Ali Zaid Al Quraishi & Brothers and the El-Ajou Group. Delegates who head to Ali Zaid Al Quraishi’s show booth will find a wide range of Canon’s digital photo and video products on display, such as its SLR and Ixus 50 digital cameras, its DM-MV range of digital video cameras, and Pixmar photo printers.

Computer giant looks to build on its top spot in the Saudi notebook market with the introduction of its Sonoma machines.

Toshiba has added to its Portégé ultra-portable notebook range, by launching the M300. This model runs on an Intel Pentium M processor, includes 256MB of internal memory, and offers a 40GB hard disk for storing data.

Indian Consul General Yash Sinha opened IT retailer Jacky’s sixth UAE store this week at the Ibn Battuta mall, Jebel Ali, Dubai. The 5,000 square foot showroom is the latest addition to the Jacky’s chain and its largest mall-based store to date.

Jamal Al Jassim Electronics will be showcasing a plethora of products at this year’s Gitex Saudi Arabia as it presents offerings from the wide range of vendors it represents in the Kingdom, including LG, Dell, D-Link Networks, Tripplite, Dazzle, Western Digital, Genius, HP, Intel, Acer, Creative and Iomega.

Al Shdaif Computers will be showcasing its full range of computer components, networking solutions and data processing services at this year’s Gitex Saudi Arabia. The company, which is part of the Shdaif Group, believes the event is the perfect platform from which to present its wares to the Kingdom’s end users.

Regional distribution giant Aptec will work closely with its vendor partners and resellers to make stock available for the spike in sales expected to occur at this year’s Gitex Saudi.

A memorandum of understanding had been signed with Ras Al Khaimah, under which the UAE emirate will buy gas produced at Hinjam.

This year’s Gitex Saudi Arabia will be of paramount importance for operator Saudi Telecommunications Company (STC) as it contemplates the onset of competition in the market for the first time in its history.

Micro International Distribution (MID) plans to differentiate itself from the region’s plethora of system assemblers at this year’s Gitex Saudi Arabia by offering an above average warranty package.

NASCO will be busy promoting NetGear products on its stand this year as the firm has struck a deal with the vendor to ship its products in Saudi Arabia.

Dubai Internet City (DIC) will once again be taking a number of its business partners to Gitex Saudi Arabia as it looks to ease their passage into the Kingdom’s IT market. This year, business partners from the DIC community attending the show include eDOC Solutions, CGACE and Comcave, Pointsec, MidEast Solutions, Network Appliance, Post cti ME, Comguard and Mitel Networks.

Empa will be on hand at the forthcoming Gitex Saudi Arabia to lend support to its resellers, as the regional distributor emphasises its development of in-country operations in the Kingdom.

Nesma Internet will be giving business the opportunity to hear about its innovative products and services at this year’s Gitex. The local company is part of Nesma National Advanced Technology, a Saudi Arabian IT company dedicated to providing turnkey internet, content management and e-business solutions to clients in the region.

Saudi solution provider Al Maalim Computer Company will be attending Gitex this year to showcase its various services to potential customers. The firm, which provides services such as integration, solution development and IT services, will also be showcasing its identity card technology and its fingerprint and access control systems.

Holool will use the forthcoming Gitex to launch HOST, a bilingual version of the Linux operating system. The IT solutions provider, which was established in Riyadh in 2000, believes its version of the open source OS will be a winner due to its user friendly GUI and features.

Saudi based distributor of advanced technology products, solutions and services, Al-Jammaz Telecom, believes its presence at Gitex Saudi Arabia will be the crowning moment of a financially strong 12-month period.

Mishaal Al-Sudairy Office for Commercial Services (MSO), one of the major distributors for IT products in the Saudi market for the past decade, will use Gitex Saudi Arabia as a platform from which to showcase and promote the latest products and solutions of its partners, including Acer, Microsoft, Symantec, AMD, Logitech, TwinMOS, Targus, Sapphire, Shuttle, and Pinnacle Systems.

Riyadh based Hoshan Company Limited aims to make a big splash at Gitex Saudi Arabia this year as it showcases its wide range of office products and services. The company offers a diverse selection of office equipment and furniture, along with voice and data communication solutions, IT products and value-added after sales services. It operates 21 sales outlets in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in addition to 27 service centers.

Distribution powerhouse Mindware will continue to develop small and medium business (SMB) focused channels for Dell in Saudi Arabia during 2005. Mindware has already created a strong route-to-market for Dell products in the Kingdom and will use the forthcoming Gitex Saudi Arabia as a platform for meeting both existing and potential business partners.

Shabakah Net, one of Saudi Arabia’s largest internet service providers (ISPs) will be at Gitex Saudi this year showcasing its wide range of web services to attendees. In particular, the company will be promoting its corporate and individual DSL solutions, VSAT data services, leased line, hot spot wireless services, VPN and dial-up solutions such as the Easynet Service.

Jeddah-based IT solution provider House of Development (HOD) will be demonstrating its package implementation, custom software application development and application service provision outsourcing facilities at this year’s Gitex Saudi Arabia.

Running over three halls and covering a massive 14,000 square metres, Gitex Saudi Arabia 2005 will be bigger and better than ever before with the show set to attract more exhibitors and a greater number of delegates than in 2004.

Vendors will be attempting to tap into the Kingdom’s growing information technology market come April 24.