Middle East, 1 November 2011: Arab Advisors Group’s Smart Handheld Summit 2011 set to take place in Dubai on the December 5 & 6 2011 at the Crown Plaza Hotel, comes at a time where the new and evolving landscape of broadband enabled devices is of paramount importance to operators, content owners, broadcasters & publishers, according to regional research house and summit organizer Arab Advisors Group, a member of the Arab Jordan Investment Bank Group.
Smartphone adoption in the Arab World is booming. According to a new survey from the Arab Advisors Group, smartphones constituted around 42% and 44% of total cellular handsets in Jordan and UAE respectively. The expanding smartphone base in the Arab World presents great opportunities for players in smartphones and smart handheld devices ecosystem. Challenges include enticing smartphone owners to make more use of the functionality and applications on their smartphones. The Smart Handheld Summit will provide a platform for all industry stakeholders to discuss and debate this industry’s key issues.
Saudi Telecom Company (STC) is the Strategic Summit Partner of Arab Advisors Smart Handheld Summit 2011. STC clarified that its sponsorship to this conference comes as an affirmation of its eminent role in the region and its leadership in the field of communications and internet, and as strategic objective through which the company seeks to effectively exist in regional and international technological events, where the latest smart innovations, products, devices, solutions, applications and programs are demonstrated, especially that the company is undertaking the mission of exclusively providing Saudi market with the latest smart devices, tablets and laptops.
Through this participation, the company added, it is seeking to meet and communicate with largest gathering of the elite from specialists, experts, technicians and representatives of international manufacturers and providers of wireless services, applications and solutions, and mobile information and smart devices, which will definitely leave its impact on STC customers, in the provision of the latest smart technologies such as personal digital assistants, smart devices, wireless networks’ equipments and applications and solutions for remote transfer and exchange of information.
“With the advent of high-speed mobile networks and smartphones, mobile users are increasingly using applications in their smartphone handsets: Arab Advisors Group’s latest research shows that application usage among smartphone users reached 61% and 45% in Jordan and UAE respectively. This underlines that while smartphone penetration is expanding, there remains a lot of room for growth in the use of the smartphone functionalities and applications.” Jawad J. Abbassi, Founder and General Manager of Arab Advisors Group noted. “Unlike what would be expected in Arabic-speaking countries, the majority of smartphone application users in Jordan and the UAE prefer the English language for their applications. 91% of smartphone users in Jordan stated that they prefer the English language for their applications and 90% in the UAE” Mr. Abbassi added.
By October 2011, 14 Arab cellular markets had 3G networks. 4 operators in Saudi Arabia and UAE launched LTE. This underlines the rising importance of the smart-phones and tablets which are increasingly becoming the focus of operators, vendors and consumers. Speakers and delegates at Arab Advisors’ Smart Handheld Summit 2011 will discuss and debate key issues concerning the state of the smart phone ecosystem in the Arab World.
Qualcomm is sponsoring the summit which is also supported by AppsArabia, Microsoft, nPario, Teletimes, DVV, ITP CommsMea, MediaME and Telecom Watch.
As part of its vision to advance the knowledge and technology industries in the Arab World, the Arab Advisors Group has waived the delegate fees for telecom and broadcast operators. As for paying delegates, they receive their choice of Arab Advisors Group reports for the same value of the registration fees (for example, credit earned from registering two delegates can be used to request any of Arab Advisors’ new major Smartphone Surveys covering Jordan, Saudi Arabia and UAE (list price per survey= US $ 2,250) Details available here.
Over the summit’s two days, delegates will interact with an impressive array of speakers that include Ms. Nayla Khawwam (CEO, Jordan Telecom Group), Mr. Osman Sultan (CEO, DU), Mr. Ghassan Hasbani (CEO International, Saudi Telecom Company), Dr. Abdul Malek Al Jaber (Founder and Chairman, MENA Apps), Mr. Rashid Al Ballaa (CEO, N2V), Mr. Tom Erskine (Director of Smart Devices, Nokia), Mr. Gustavo Fuchs (Director, Mobility, Microsoft Middle East & Africa), Mr. Fadi Ghandour (CEO, Aramex), Mr. Nick Dimarzo (CEO, SaleCo), Mr. David Ashford (General Manager, AppsArabia), Mr. Mohamad Mourad (Regional Manager Gulf, Google), Mr. Hosam El Sokkari (Head of Audience, Yahoo), Mr. Mohammed Al-Mefleh (Director, Product Management Middle East, Research In Motion), Mr. Basel Tutunji (Chief Operating Officer, nPARIO), Dr. Ammar Bakkar (Director of New Media, MBC), Mr. Fawzi Rahhal (Regional Digital Director, Grey) and Mr. Jawad Abbassi (Founder and General Manager, Arab Advisors Group).
The Smart Handheld Summit 2011 will take place at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Dubai on December 5&6 2011. For more details and Online Registration please visit the conference web site.
Related articles
- Report: Smartphones make 41.6% of total mobile handsets in Jordan – ArabCrunch (dvhankerson.wordpress.com)
