Highlights of the1st Middle East PDA Summit

By: Mohd Al-Ashram
Date: December 10 , 2003

In a special note we would like to address special thanks to Arabcom Group for making the first Middle East PDA Summit which was held in Dubai an incredible success. We are proud and honored to have this event hosted here in Dubai. And we are very happy to announce that the next PDA Summit will take place also in Dubai next year. We would like to thank Mrs Katia Tayar (President & CEO) and Mr. Jean-Louis Farwagi (Vice President, Arabcom project manager) for their great efforts to make this dream to come true. They gathered the key players in this business, top official government and corporate delegates, industry leaders, forum participants and business visitors under one roof.

I would like to show some highlights of this event and some feature stories on the innovative companies that participated this year. Sponsors included HP Middle East (Platinum sponsors), palmOne Europe Ltd (Gold sponsors), ADB FZ – LLC (Silver sponsors), Captaris (Bronze sponsors). Co-Sponsors AME Info FZ-LLC.

This event provided everyone (myself included) with the rare opportunity to meet with and learn from many of the people who matter most in this industry. It made a big difference and played an important role in educating the general public in particular in how people can use mobility. I believe they achieved this goal, they aimed to creating the awareness with sessions covering a complete range of technical information to aid and assist both hardware and software developers, there was something for everyone during the two-day event.

“Our world is evolving into a Knowledge economy. The ability of a society to acquire knowledge helps drive the competitiveness of a country's economy and can mean the difference between growth and stagnation. A "Mobile office" is a simple communication Solution for everyone on the move. PDAs offer tremendous opportunities nowadays. The utility of such devices surpass expectations in a multitude of ways for both Public & Private sectors. You will be surprised of the solutions available that your pocket size companion can provide you.” Katia Tayar.

The exhibitor expo hall provided access to about forty vendors covering a wide range of hardware, software and cellular technology solutions. The location of the exhibitors and the auditorium brought the attendees and presenters together, so they where interacting and exchanging information while they had a hands-on experience with different mobile devices. It was a great opportunity for every individual involved in mobility solutions including the average consumer.

I would like to summarize my tour in the exhibition Expo. The exhibitors displayed varieties of devices such as laptops, taplet PCs and their accessories, so I will focus only on PDAs. (Click on thumbnails to view the full version of the pictures)

        

As I entered my mouth started watering as I see gadgets wherever I look. Truly it was a wonderful and exciting event. Of course I immediately went to visit HP’s stand. They were displaying different devices including laptops and imaging devices, but you know I was more concerned in iPAQ. I tried to get some info about the next iPAQ, the h6000, but they were hush about it. It seems to me that they got strong instructions not to talk about it. Well, they displayed iPAQ h2210, h 5550and h1930/40. They didn’t display iPAQ h 4150because as per HP’s representative it has already arrived but it was delayed in the Airport. As you are well aware that iPAQ h 4350will not be released in this region. Next to HP, I came across ADB FZ-LLC which is a leading IT Solutions Company based in Dubai that provides Mobile Computing, Security and Wireless services to enterprises and governments. From the following pictures you will see the devices which where displayed by them.

        

I met with the representatives for Symantec; they had different range of products, including Symantec AntiVirus for handhelds.

Felix (Computer Aided Technologies) presented AutoCAD solution for Pocket PCs including Taplet PCs. It is called CeCAD which is the first2 D/3D AutoCAD compatible design for viewing on Windows CE3 . 0and Windows CE.NET mobile and wireless handheld devices. It is instantly usable by operators of any skill level, three different CeCAD versions provide instant payback for engineers, architects, designers, appraisers, inspectors, project & facility managers, emergency response teams, GIS professionals, and anyone else who needs to view, markup, or create AutoCAD compatible designs and digital
blueprints.

    

Data Capture Systems presented devices for different industries and services such as: Retail, van sales, healthcare, oil and gas, manufacturing, logistics/ware housing, education, courier postal, airlines/airport, etc… I quote from my discussion with their one of their sales representatives Mr. Fadi Al Salaah “We can rely more on Microsoft based devices to provide adaptable applications”. They develop applications and customize it for different end users.

I stopped by Intermec rugged devices designed for automatic data capture solutions for retail operations. Some of the features are retailing in demand by providing real time visibility of inventories and increased dada accuracy, fast verification of bar coded goods, linking operators to the company’s inventory system, and many more.

Sony has introduced their latest products as well; I was really impressed by the new Clie UX50. But I was more impressed by the sales representatives presented and the way they presented Sony products, they were highly skilled and great communicators. Ummm! If it was only a Pocket PC!

Acer displayed different monitors and two versions of their new Taplet PCs including Acer n10 Pocket PC.

Microhit Technologies presented Itronix Rugged and Ultra-Rugged devices such as Notebooks, tablet PCs and handhelds.

I had a very interesting discussion with Intel representatives; we talked about Intel wireless solutions deployment and the optimization of the Xscale processor, they displayed devices based on Intel processors or “Intel personal Internet client architecture”, at the end of the second day Mr. Fritz Gernt (Senior Software Consultant) conducted a workshop about XScale-related tech content which was attended mainly by developers, It included: XScale architecture overview, Using Intel compiler for Xscale, Using VTune for XScale.

Talking about software developers, I also visited Harf stand and they presented the new Noble Quran software for Pocket PCs. Including Prayer times, date converter and Qiblah direction. As per Harf representative confirmed to me that they are planning to develop more Arabic applications in the future, which is really important for all Arabic speaking Pocket PC users 

Though there were also some other exhibitors with interesting devices and solutions, I had my final stop at palmOne. You might ask your self what I was doing there. Well believe it or not, palmOne had a strong presence in the summit, and remember this is called PDA Summit, so you see it involves all Palm and Pocket PC based devices including Symbian and others. I met with Mr. Markus C. Mueller (CEO, Ubitexx) he is a wonderful person to talk to. We discussed both Palm and Pocket PC devices, what they offer for both corporate and general customers.

Of course there are also other exhibitors I have seen in the Expo, if you are also interested click here to find more info about their products and solutions.

Well it was a fantastic time meeting everybody in this wonderful event and it will be remembered for sure specially that it is the first event of its kind in this region. I am looking forward for the next PDA summit next year which is going to be even bigger.

Discuss this event here