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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 April 1999 Issue No. 424 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 April 1999 Issue No. 424
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Profile Features Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters New Arabic software
by Rehab SaadInternational, Arab and Egyptian companies this week launched a new series of hardware products, and Arabic software programmes.
For the first time in the Middle East, Apple Computers, the US company, launched its new line of power Macintosh G3 products at the Gitex-Egypt IT exhibit held in Cairo this week. In addition, a new configuration of the personal computer Mac 266 MH2 was on display.
"Our attendance at this show endorses our commitment to the Egyptian market," said Dany Khair, marketing coordinator of Arab Business Machines, Middle East agents for Apple Computer.
He added that Egypt, for Apple, is a growing market that has not yet reached the point of saturation. "That's why it is a targeted market for us. We still have a lot to do in it," he stressed.
In addition to Apple, other companies such as Microsoft, Sakhr, and Delta have marketed for the first time several Arabic software programmes. Microsoft launched its Internet Explorer 5.0 for Arabic users. The new programme is meant to offer users new features such as browsing capability and multiple language support.
"Internet Explorer 5.0 allows users to view multiple language web sites through a single, global version including complex scripts such as Arabic which requires complex forms of handling," said Asem Galal, product manager of Microsoft Egypt.
Moreover, another company, Business Optimisation Consultants (BOC), launched its "Maktoob" programme, an Arabic web-based e-mail which allows Arab users to register free and have private e-mail accounts they can check anywhere in the world. This solution provides similar functions to Hotmail, but with enormous advantages for Arabic users.
Computer Aided Translation (CAT) is the latest Sakhr contribution to the Arab world. The new technology achieves almost automatic translation and is expected to improve productivity for a wide variety of users including translation houses, government, education, banks, media and research centres.
According to Sakhr officials, the company is currently developing a full-fledged Arabic based e-commerce solution for the Arab market with developed security features to combat fraud related to card payments. "The Arab market has become a mature market, and thus it is natural that the requirement for Arabic programmes increases," said Joseph Karkour, sales manager of Diwan Layout Software Publishing.
Karkour, whose company presents Arabic programmes for layout and publishing, added that he sold about 6,800 licences in the Arab world for his new Arabic software "Safahat" (Arabic for 'pages') in less than two years. "In Egypt we sold about 200 in two years. The sales curve is really enlarging," he said. Egyptian developers are playing a pivotal role in this respect.
According to international reports, Egypt is firmly placed on the map of international software providers. As a result of the fact that a growing number of international companies see the potential of Arabisation, many have begun sub-contracting Egyptian software developers in a bid to gain a share of the lucrative Middle East market.
"We developers should keep on training all the time or else we will be behind the times. In Egypt there are some centres that offer sound training such as the Microsoft Authorised Training Centre, the IBM Authorised Training Centre, in addition to the IT Institute (ITI) affiliated to the cabinet," said Osama Farag, senior software developer of Horizon Information Technology.
However, according to Farag, in order to support Egypt's Arabic software developers, certain problems have to be tackled, such as the lack of syndicate representation, a prerequisite which producers need in order to protect their copyrights. "The absence of such a syndicate opens the door for non-professionals to enter the field and produce unqualified software, which shakes people's confidence in the credibility of Egyptian developers."
