Siemens mobile phones recently hosted a five-day workshop especially designed to provide its service partners knowledge and training of the company’s 65 new series platform. The program was the first of a series of many more to come, catering to more than 30 partners form across the Middle East and Africa region. Key topics of discussion included the customer care strategic vision for the region and technical training conducted by Jens Lerner form Siemens mobile Global Repairs Management in Germany. Two more Siemens mobile service centers are due to open, including one in the next two weeks in Cairo and Casablanca, Sherif Barakat, customer care regional manager of Siemens mobile phones, MEA, said. Siemens recently introduced CX65, a new handset that offers a stylish multimedia experience for trendsetters in the region. The next-generation MMS mobile phone is complete with video, ph oto editing and game joystick. It is a product of elegant design with an extra large color screen and integrated camera for video and photography, all housed in distinctive style. “For those who love communicating creatively, the CX65 redefines messaging, screen quality and usability. The stunning size of the screen sets the phone apart from its competitors. It brings new excitement to mobile communication,” Asim Sukhera, vice president of Siemens mobile phones, MEA, said. The company has also introduced new Gigaset cordless home phones packed with features common to mobile phones and featuring innovations that completely redefine telephony at home. At the top of the Gigaset range are the SL100 and SL150, hardly bigger than mobile cell phones. “Their user-friendly technology has not seen before it cordless phones,” the company claims.

Computex Taipei

Computex Taipei 2004, which ran for five days last month attracted a record number of 1,347 exhibitors and 2,828 stands, an increase of 8.5 percent and 16.9 percent, respectively, over last year. “It thereby became the world’s second largest IT trade exhibition after Germany’s CeBIT in Hanover,” Fareed Hwang Jieh-Shan, Taiwan’s Riyadh-based information division director. Of the exhibitors, 143 were foreign firms from 22 countries and regions, including a number of first-time participants like Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, Agilent Technologies, Sanyo Denki and Moserbaer India. This year’s event also set a new record for size, occupying an area of 58,730 sq. m. at Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Halls. Taiwanese companies are currently the “world’s largest” producers of notebook computers. Together, they shipped more than 2.5 million units from their factories in Taiwan and China, making up an estimated two-thirds of world production, according to figures from the Market Intelligence Center of the Institute for Information Industry. DigiTimes Research said they will ship more than 40 million notebooks in 2004, accounting for 80 percent of the global total. Other IT products of local companies predicted by the MIC to make up over 50 percent of global production this year include motherboards at over 80 percent and liquid-crystal display monitors at more than 55 percent. The Ministry of Economic Affairs forecasts an IT production value of $68.4 billion for Taiwanese companies n 2004, an increase of 20 percent over last year.

SPS/Kodak

Samir Photographic Supplies Co. (SPS) has introduced two additions to its point-and-shoot line of Kodak’s EasyShare consumer digital cameras — CX7530 CX7330 zoom digital cameras. The CX7530 camera is ideal for the digital photographer who wants great photos, one-touch picture taking simplicity, plus a degree of creative flexibility. It offers 5-megapixel (MP) resolution for rich photographic detail as well as the ability to enlarge photos up to 20 x 30 inches, a 3X optical zoom lens and integrated digital photo album, and multiple preset scene modes. The camera is available worldwide at a suggested retail price of $299. Combining fully automatic point-and-shoot convenience with 3-megapixel resolution and a 3X optical zoom lens, the CX7330 digital camera makes taking and sharing high quality pictures one-touch simple. The CX7330 digital camera is available for $179. EasyShare CX cameras give busy parents exactly what they need to capture both everyday and special family moments, and then share them on the camera’s LCD screen, in an e-mail, or with a Kodak print, said SPS Marketing Manager Saher Al-Hindi. The Kodak EasyShare printer dock ($149 MSRP) is the “simplest way” to create beautiful, borderless Kodak 4 x 6-inch pictures at home without a computer. The dock provides a full camera battery charge in less than three and a half hours, plus battery reconditioning for improved performance. When connected to a computer, the printer dock also permits rapid, one-touch transfer of digital pictures to a hard drive.

Motorola

Motorola, a world leader in wireless communications, and Etisalat believe the use of third generation phones in the Middle East region is driven by a strong consumer demand for video conferencing. The provision of 3G technology across the region offers an entirely new communication platform to the world of telecommunications by reliably delivering the latest in multi-media entertainment, advanced messaging and Bluetooth wireless technology at unprecedented speeds on mobile phones. “Motorola is at the forefront of a new wave of communication technology — this is a position that we are not going to give up, and our portfolio of products is designed in such a way that we stay in pole position through 2005,” said Gene Delaney, president of Motorola’s Global Relations and Resource Organization. Motorola’s latest 3G phone — A835, is a consumer driven communication tool with the capacity to operate on third generation services and networks using very high data speeds. These high exchange rates are suitable for reliable video conferencing. Motorola and Etisalat enjoy a special partnership arrangement regarding third generation services in the UAE. The recent announcement of a joint initiative aimed at affordably providing an end-to-end user solution across the UAE has made the deployment of this evolutionary technology real and accessible. The company has committed to exclusively provide Etisalat with state-of-the-art third generation mobile phones.

Porsche

Porsche Middle East & Africa, now the fifth largest subsidiary of Germany-based Porsche AG, has announced plans to expand its regional hold and sell vehicles in India through dedicate Porsche centers. Two distributors appointed are Bombay-based Shreyans Motors where Ashish Chordia will run operations at the Porsche Center Mumbai and New-Delhi based Exclusive Motors, where the Porsche Center New Delhi will be managed by Satya Bagla. At present these are the only official Porsche distributors in India, although representation will be increased in the coming 18 months. Officials at Dubai-based Porsche Middle East said the recent demand in India for the company’s new all-road SUV, the Cayenne, precipitated the expansion. “There have always been Porsche aficionados in India,” Porsche Middle East’s Managing Director Mark Bishop. “And now with the advent of the Cayenne it made perfect sense to enter the Indian market. India is a developing market for luxury brands and has huge potential for Porsche, We’re thrilled to be part of this automotive transformation along with our new partners in New Delhi and Bombay,” he added. The Cayenne Turbo with a 4.5 liter V8 bi-turbo engine and a top speed of 266 kmph is at the top of the range, complemented by the Cayenne S with a top speed of 242 kmph) and the first ever Porsche with a V6 engine, the Cayenne, which tops 214 kmph. Both importers will also supply sports cars from the extended Porsche family of vehicles, including models from the Boxster and the 911 selections raging from the powerful roadster, the Boxster with a 2.7-liter engine all the way up to the 911 Turbo.

Alesayi Electronics

Alesayi Electronics introduced Panasonic’s latest IP PBX phone system in Jeddah recently. Khaled Al-Ghazzi, marketing manager of Alesayi in the Kingdom, said the new system was the best available with network links. “The system is easy to maintain, and saves time and costs less,” he said, adding that the company’s ongoing summer promotion has on offer 15 Lexus cars together costing more than SR3 million in weekly draws across the Kingdom. He said the company lost SR10 million in the Kingdom’s market. “The loss is mostly caused by sale of imitation products,” he said, adding that the problem of counterfeiting and imitation was being dealt with through appropriate and legal channels.