Toshiba, Acer Fight for Market Share
According to the latest report published by IDC on the Middle East notebook market, Toshiba has grown by over 160 percent over the same period last year in Saudi Arabia.
Samer Sayed, sales and marketing manager, Toshiba Computer Systems Division for Saudi Arabia, attributes this growth to the company’s services and product reputation as well as its ability to adapt to the local market and to collaborate with a financially strong and reputable network of partners.
“Toshiba’s results are all down to the team’s continuous effort in Saudi Arabia. We now have a dedicated focus for the Kingdom which allowed us to work on innovating our local sales and marketing strategies and to develop a solid channel network which reaches both consumers and businesses of all sizes in the most efficient manner,” Sayed said. “I can confidently say that we have reached our targets and these results stand us in good stead to sustain this growth through to 2006.”
Sayed may be overly optimistic as Acer is coming on strong globally. Acer has surpassed Toshiba as the world’s No. 3 notebook brand in Q4 2005, with 66.7 percent year-on-year growth — highest among the top-five notebook vendors, according to preliminary data from Gartner Dataquest. Acer notebooks ranked No. 1 in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and No. 3 in Asia Pacific with 117.1 percent growth, the highest among the Top 10 vendors.
For the Total PC market, Acer ranked No. 4 and demonstrated the highest year-on-year growth of 56.2 percent among the Top 10 vendors. Acer also ranked No. 3 in EMEA and No. 5 in Asia Pacific, with respective year-on-year growth of 48.3 percent and 62.4 percent. Both growth rates were the highest among the Top 5 vendors.
In the US market, Acer is showing its strength as a rapidly rising PC player, by delivering 145.3 percent growth for Total PCs, and 202.6 percent for notebooks — highest among the Top 10 brands. Moreover, Acer was the only desktop brand that demonstrated growth among the Top 10 players.
According to Gartner’s preliminary data for Q4 2005 worldwide notebook shipments, Dell was ranked first with 17.1 percent market share and 50.9 percent year on year (YOY) growth. HP was second with 16.5 percent market share and 41.8 percent YOY growth. Acer was third with 12.2 percent market share. Fourth came Toshiba with 10.5 percent market share and 20.9 percent YOY growth. Last in the Top 5 was Fujitsu Siemens with 8.1 percent market share and 18 percent YOY growth.
1st Phase of Automation Completed at SFFECO
Raya Corporation has completed the first phase of the project for automating management systems at the Saudi Factory for Fire Equipment Company (SFFECO). Starting from this year, SFFECO has begun adopting solutions based on the Oracle E-Business Suite, an application for automating its management operations across all departments. As part of the first phase of the project, Raya has implemented the solutions to automate the financial management, distribution and customer relationship management processes. The second phase will extend these applications to human resource management and production management systems.
“We have chosen Raya to implement Oracle systems in SFFECO in view of its outstanding record in developing and executing automation solutions in many companies from diverse sectors,” said Hady Al-Khateeb, GM, SFFECO.
“Raya was also selected for the project because its team of professionals speak Arabic, which makes it easier for our staff to communicate with them and understand how the new processes are managed,” said Mohammed Husain Omran, financial manager, SFFECO.
Mohammed Talaat, GM, Raya Corporation in Saudi Arabia, remarked that the implementation of the project is a challenge for Raya because of SFFECO’s many complex requirements.
“The project speaks for Raya Corporation’s success in implementing such projects for big companies across the Middle East,” he said. “Adopting efficient work systems will lead to many progressive initiatives in the future that will help to improve the business environment in the region.”
Al-Arabiya No. 1 in Saudi Arabia
A new Ipsos-Stat poll confirms Al-Arabiya as the No. 1 news channel in Saudi Arabia. According to the study, the Dubai-based news channel enjoyed a 4.9 percent increase over its closest competitor — Al-Jazeera — in viewership throughout the Kingdom, bringing it to a current viewership rating of 24.2 percent. Viewer confidence in Al-Arabiya was further reinforced with 99 percent of those surveyed saying they would like to watch Al-Arabiya — 20 percent more than its nearest competitors.
E&S Wins Visual System for Saudia
Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp. (E&S) has been awarded a contract by CAE of Montreal, Canada, to provide an EP-1000CT/ESCP-2000 visual system for an Embraer 170 full-flight simulator being manufactured for Saudi Arabian Airlines.
“We are extremely honored to have been selected to supply the visual system for this project. Saudi Arabian Airlines is a long-time operator of E&S visual systems,” said Dave Rushton, managing director of E&S UK Ltd. “This award builds on the solid relationship between CAE and E&S and demonstrates our cooperative arrangements for our mutual customers.”
E&S’ EP-1000CT is based on Evans & Sutherland’s innovative Environment Processor technology, certified to Level D by the FAA and JAA and sold worldwide for both fixed and rotary wing applications. EP-1000CT provides industry-leading features that deliver improved training fidelity and lower cost of ownership, such as fast creation and update of detailed airport scenes, advanced adverse weather simulation, a continuous worldwide geodetic 3D background environment and unmatched training realism and image quality.
