COMDEX comes to Egypt

By Amira Howeidy

The event came 17 years after Dubai first hosted the famous Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX) which continues to be held in the UAE city annually.

COMDEX was held in the Cairo International Conference Centre in Nasr City from 23-26 May. Over 100 companies from 11 countries from all over the world displayed products ranging from hardware and software to computer magazines.

COMDEX Egypt is part of a high-powered information technology series with events in North and South America, Europe and Asia. Each year, more than 7,000 companies exhibit in COMDEX shows attended by over a million people.

Although thousands of people attended the exhibition, it was not as successful as GITEX, according to most IT experts.

"Each exhibitor remained in his booth without inviting visitors or promoting their products," complained Amr El-Amir, manager of Future, a local internet service provider (ISP). "As for the conference, which was held parallel to the exhibition, I noticed that there was no Arab vision, nothing new in the IT industry. Moreover, all the speakers read out their papers in English while the very small audience which attended was Arab."

But Richard Nootbos, of Xylan Switched Network Services, defended COMDEX. "You can't compare COMDEX with GITEX because the latter has been an annual event for the past 17 years, while COMDEX's first experience in the entire region is happening now," he told Al-Ahram Weekly. "But on the level of setup and organization, COMDEX is a success."

Admitting that COMDEX exhibitors were not performing as professionally as those in GITEX, Nootbos said they needed more time. "Everyone is here to understand more about the market in the region and Egypt," he said. "Do not expect them to rent large booths and invest thousands from the very first time. In a few years time, COMDEX will be able to develop itself properly and attract international companies."

The topics at the two-day conference included "Digital Nervous Systems," "Combating Piracy on the Internet," "Ink Jet Technology," "New Communications Technologies" and "Achieving a Paperless Office with Document Management Systems."

Software news was limited to Microsoft's launching of its Internet Explorer 4.0, Arabic version. "We've examined, tested and tried it extensively in our beta-version; now we can distribute it confidently and say it is almost void of bugs," Anas Abbar, Microsoft's Arabic product manager, told the Weekly.

Microsoft's main achievement in the 4.0 Explorer Arabic version is that end-users will not need to purchase the English version as this one reads English too, Abbar said.

COMDEX hardware news ranged from Compaq's announcement of its Deskpro EN series of desktop computers to Intel's unveiling of its new generation of processors to the Egyptian PC marketplace.

"The new Deskpro EP and EN Series incorporate the latest industry-standards technologies from Intel including the new 350 Mhz and 400Mhz Pentium ® II processors and a robust set of manageability technologies, creating the industry's most highly manageable and powerful desktops," said Joseph Hanania, general manager of Compaq's market development group.

Gilbert Lacroix, general manager of Intel Corporation, Middle East, said Egypt was becoming their largest market in the Middle East. "We are confident that these new processors will meet the computing demands of Egyptian users," he said.

Many of the computer manufacturers also displayed their latest production in notebooks. "The concept of purchasing a notebook is not as common in Egypt as it is internationally," a marketing manager from Acer computers told the Weekly. "This is why our aim here is to basically create that concept."

His counterparts from Dell, Compaq and Hewlett Packard shared that view. "The high prices of notebooks, which rise even higher by the time they reach the consumer because of the severe taxes imposed by the Egyptian government is another reason why notebooks are not popular here," the Acer executive added.

Many visitors headed for the Arabic software booths which displayed the electronic version of the Qur'an, Hadith and interpretations of the Qur'an. Significant attention was also directed at software companies which displayed "CDs that teach you English in only two months."

The Apple Macintosh booth was crowded by visitors eager to take a glimpse of composer and singer Mohammed Nouh. "We are here to say we are still active in the IT industry, not just in desktops," company executive George Ezzat told the Weekly. "We want to target internet service providers, movie and music makers to purchase and rely on our equipment in this context."

Inviting public figures such as Nouh was part of their promotional strategies, he added.

On Sunday, Ibrahim Fawzi, head of the Investment Authority, held a meeting with key exhibitors to "prove the Egyptian government's sincerity in promoting and taking an active role in the IT industry."

The exhibitors at the meeting talked of the need to further combat software piracy and implement copy right laws. They also asked for reduction or exemption from taxes on certain spare parts. However, Fawzi did not make any promises.