SONY ERICSSON
Sony Ericsson has unveiled its cutting-edge smartphone, the “Live With Walkman,” that seeks to integrate superior music capabilities with the most comfortable social networking experience. Equipped with xLOUDTM, the latest technology invention from the Sony Ericsson labs produces excellent sound quality through its built-in stereo speakers, even at high volumes. The phone is also embedded with a “Media Discovery Application” that provides easy access to the world of music and videos on the web with just a click. Rudiger Odenbach, GM, Middle East, Sony Ericsson, said: "Music and social networking are the most popular content on smartphones and Sony Ericsson's Live With Walkman endeavors to bring both features together in an extremely conducive style. This ultimate entertainment package reaches out to our audiences with a 360-degree approach, offering the latest in music, social networking capabilities, media apps, operating system and hardware components. The Sony team understands music like no other having pioneered the first portable music player in 1979. There has been no looking back since then." Live With Walkman also has Deep Facebook integration facility that allows users to instantly access the social networking site through the frequently used areas of the phone including the picture gallery, music player, phonebook and calendar. The phone that runs on the latest Android platform, Gingerbread 2.3, sports an array of interesting features.
SBM
Saudi Business Machines (SBM), general marketing sales representative of IBM in Saudi Arabia, recently hosted a road show in Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam to showcase IBM's latest storage solutions and their functions. IBM's latest in storage solutions offer optimized smart storage solutions that insure flexibility and scalability and these systems can scale up from the smallest configuration to the largest configuration non-disruptively; availability and resiliency with higher performance levels. IBM's solutions assure to decrease risks related to information capital and guarantee businesses continuity. "The most advanced model of IBM's system storage has been designed to support even the most challenging business applications," said Fadhel Al-Shaikh, VP, Systems Sales, SBM. "With latest smart storage improvement, the new model has unparalleled resiliency features." He added: "The ability to ensure your data is secure even after it has been removed from your physical storage is essential to all organizations. IBM's latest smart storage solutions enable professional entities to achieve their business objectives and goals by addressing the needs of important business applications. IBM's is among the leading data storage service providers, and continue to develop systems that integrate new solutions and technologies within business and IT infrastructure. IBM has largely invested in enhancing system storage products and services."
STETTER ARABIA/AL MASSAD
Ali Al-Masaad Co. for producing Building Materials (ABNI) has signed a contract with Stetter Arabia for the supply and installation of ready-mix concrete batching and ice plants to be established in Makkah, with the capacity to produce 9,000 cubic meters per day. At the signing ceremony, Gunther Abolins, GM, Stetter in Germany, had encouraging words, acknowledging Saudi Arabia as an important and vibrant market due to its sheer size and number of mega projects compared to countries in the Gulf, Asia and Africa. To meet the challenging opportunities in the construction sector of Saudi Arabia and neighboring Gulf countries, and to fulfill optimum support, Stetter Germany has entered into a joint venture with Zahid Tractor, named Stetter Arabia, which will set up a purpose built factory for the production of transit mixers and concrete batching plants in Jeddah, covering the requirements of the growing Saudi and Gulf Markets. Ali Al-Masaad said his choice of Stetter products was based on their worldwide leadership in the industry with reliable and distinguished products and technology. "I was impressed and honored to see a multinational factory (AVI) where the Saudization rate is more than 60 percent producing such a high quality product," said Al-Masaad. Nasser Bayram, director of Zahid Tractor's commercial vehicles division, said: "The signing is only the beginning of the journey with ABNI." Ahmad Bakr, product manager of Stetter Arabia, said Zahid Tractor, in collaboration with Stetter of Germany, will be unique in providing comprehensive solutions.
LULU/VISA
Visa, a major payment solution provider, has revealed the results of its successful partnership with LULU Hypermarket during the month of Ramadan. The offer, which ran from the Aug. 1-31, offered shoppers the chance to claim rewards on purchases made on all Visa credit cards (Classic, Gold, Platinum and Infinite) during the campaign period, resulting in a huge uplift in usage as total spend reached SR7,469,508 for the month. The promotion was part of an initiative to raise awareness of the ease and convenience of using Visa credit cards to purchase everyday goods and was open exclusively to Visa credit cardholders when shopping at the LULU Hypermarkets at Riyadh Avenue Mall and LULU Saudi Shopping Center, as well as Alkhobar's King Fahd Street. As part of the offer, Visa credit cardholders received free LULU gift vouchers worth SR50 for every SR500 spent, with the value of the rewards increasing the more they spent, up to the value of SR5,000 for a single transaction. "The results of the promotion clearly demonstrate that Visa cardholders in the Kingdom, have benefited and enjoyed this offer. Spending on Visa credit cards at LULU outlets in Saudi Arabia increased by 35 percent compared to previous month and a significant 180 per cent growth when compared to Ramadan in 2010." said Ahmed Gaber, Visa country manager for Saudi Arabia. Shehim Mohammed, regional director form LULU Hypermarket said: "It was truly a good time to give back to society as well as a good example of CSR."
