ALKHOBAR, 1 November 2005 — Throughout the month of October, Jarir Bookstores teamed up with Source IT to take the i-mate, wireless handheld devices, on a road show around the Kingdom. The i-mate tour ran between Oct. 13 and Oct. 28 at selected Jarir Bookstores in Riyadh, Jeddah and Alkhobar. The tour featured interactive presentations and live demonstrations of the latest devices from i-mate.
“Our aim was to boost the profile in Saudi Arabia of the world’s most sophisticated range of pocket PCs,” said Ahmed Al-Azzawi, director at Source IT, the official i-mate distributor for the Middle East. “Saudi Arabia is one of the largest markets for pocket PCs and we wanted to ensure that i-mate users could benefit fully from the countless possibilities offered by these remarkable handsets. These include wireless Bluetooth ability, a full Microsoft Office suite of applications, e-mail and Internet capability and an MP3 player.”
The Kingdom is a major market for i-mate and there was strong interest in the company’s latest products, the i-mate JASJAR, and the i-mate K-JAM. The i-mate JASJAR handheld features the latest Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system, a rotating VGA screen, two cameras and full Internet browsing ability, including built-in Wi-Fi. The i-mate K-JAM, the successor to the popular and successful i-mate JAM device, is packed with features including a slide keyboard, 1.3 megapixel camera and an MP3 player.
“Jarir Bookstores was very excited to be working alongside Source IT and i-mate on this timely initiative,” commented Nasser Abdul Aziz Al-Ageel, CEO, Jarir Bookstores. “Customers are becoming increasingly tech-savvy and are demanding more information about the products they buy. The i-mate road show addressed this trend head-on.”
The latest i-mate devices are already quite popular in the Kingdom, according to Majdi Jaddo, business development manager, Saudi Arabia, Source IT. Jaddo was tasked with doing the live demos during i-mate’s Saudi road show.
“We did the demos during the evening in Ramadan at Jarir and the turnout was excellent,” said Jaddo. “There are some misconceptions on doing business in Ramadan in Saudi Arabia. The fact is that as always, business activities have to be tailored to the market. In Ramadan a lot of people were out shopping because Eid is coming. Many people get annual bonuses at this time and there is a tendency to buy gifts at Eid, too. So it was the perfect time for us to show off the i-mate.”
Every day after the presentations, Jaddo wrote careful reports about the response to the products. He noted attendance at the demos, the questions asked, suggestions for new features and how many devices were sold by Jarir that evening. In this way the road show provided valuable feedback to Source IT, as well as familiarized the market with the devices. Jaddo pointed out that the i-mates were never tied down with a cable lock during the demos. People were encouraged to hold the i-mates, try out their features — even put in a SIM card and make a phone call.
“I noticed during the demos that all sorts of people were interested to try the i-mate — old, young, women, men — all wanted to ask about the devices,” remarked Jaddo. “The customers at Jarir already knew about the i-mate brand since these PDA/phones are so popular here. The i-mate comes with an Arabic keyboard and Arabic software which is a big selling point in Saudi Arabia. Actually, people in the Kingdom are really thirsty for technology. Even if they don’t want to buy a device, they still want to understand everything about it. Such enthusiasm is hard to find in other cultures where often technology is taken for granted.”
Consumers buy the i-mates based on their intentions for use. The JASJAR is most popular with businessmen. Women and students generally purchase the K-JAM. Jaddo explained that because the i-mate is a well-known high-tech device, it has become something of a status symbol in certain circles. People will take the i-mate out and show it off and to do that it’s necessary to have the latest model.
“Even among Saudi women, high-tech devices are now of great interest,” said Jaddo. “I remember a few years back when the society here thought that computers and technology were things that should only be attractive to men. In the demonstrations I did during Ramadan, women were as active as men in asking questions and trying out the i-mates. They didn’t hesitate at all in commenting during the presentations. This is just one small way to see how Saudi Arabia is changing.”
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