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.  

 

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). 

 

Saudi Telecom Company (STC) is the Strategic Summit Partner of Arab Advisors Smart Handheld Summit 2011 set to take place in Dubai on the 5th and 6th of December 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.