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Arabia | |
First 'Made in Saudi Arabia' Mobile Coming | |
2005-01-06 | |
A new brand of mobile phones made in Saudi Arabia by a Saudi company will hit the market later this month. Based on indigenous technology, the product will be the first "Made in Saudi Arabia" mobile phone, Ghazi Saleh Al-Shalhoub, chairman of Saudi Television Manufacturing Company, told Arab News. "The product is made without collaboration with any foreign manufacturer," he claimed. He said Saudi Television Manufacturing Company's new mobile phone is the first such product in the Kingdom and the Middle East region. It puts Saudi Arabia in a league of nations possessing electronic technology capable of producing such sophisticated products on its own. Al-Shalhoub said the company has invested about $9 million to develop its own technology for the product named Islamic Saudi Mobile Phone which will be offered for sale at the end of January.
The Kingdom imports around six million mobile phones a year, with 70 percent of consumers regularly changing their mobiles, something that has greatly boosted demand. Competition in the mobile phone market is expected to intensify with the arrival of a new competitor to the Saudi Telecom Company which until now has been dominating both the mobile and land phone markets. Ettihad Etisalat which won the second mobile phone service license said it expects to get up to seven million subscribers in the first five years of its operations in the Kingdom. | |
Posted by:tipper |
#13 Does it come standard with the port to connect to your explosives, or is that optional? The communication protocol used by the phone to interface with external devices will be fully compatible with Wahhabi remote triggering requirements. |
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-01-06 5:25:12 PM |
#12 "Customized in Taiwan, Assembled in the Magic Kingdom!" |
Posted by: mojo 2005-01-06 1:48:57 PM |
#11 Bluetooth bombvest accessory? Or is the technology israeli, and if you call one of the phones and type in a code, will it explode? |
Posted by: Mark E. 2005-01-06 1:03:39 PM |
#10 Made in Saudi Arabia...by imported workers from India, no doubt. Can't wait for the next KSA scientific breakthrough. |
Posted by: Desert Blondie 2005-01-06 12:14:54 PM |
#9 Wireless because it uses string. |
Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-01-06 11:37:01 AM |
#8 Yeah what's next? Female drivers? |
Posted by: True German Ally 2005-01-06 11:36:27 AM |
#7 #3 Saudi cell phone joins a venerable list: Arabic numerals, Damask steel, etc. |
Posted by: gromgoru 2005-01-06 11:34:54 AM |
#6 Steve, the explosives pack comes with the battery upgrade. |
Posted by: BH 2005-01-06 10:58:48 AM |
#5 Does it come standard with the port to connect to your explosives, or is that optional? |
Posted by: Steve 2005-01-06 9:33:55 AM |
#4 I thought Standard Can was a US company. |
Posted by: Shipman 2005-01-06 8:57:06 AM |
#3 I found this German gem about those mobile phones: "Das LG-Handy G5300 Quiblah macht's möglich. Laut LG-Sprecher Kim Kyong Hwan wurde das mit einem Kompass ausgestattete Gerät eigens für die islamische Welt entwickelt. Der Kompass richte sich dank GPS immer genau auf Mekka aus. Die erste Lieferung werde noch in dieser Woche auf den Weg nach Saudi Arabien gebracht." Haha the "speaker of that company LG is called Kim Kyong Hwan and the mobile "was sent to Saudi Arabia". I suppose the only thing the Saudis did was to stick "Made in KSA" on it. |
Posted by: True German Ally 2005-01-06 7:59:42 AM |
#2 I'd be more impressed if a company in Dubai hadn't announced this 6 months ago. |
Posted by: AzCat 2005-01-06 5:00:51 AM |
#1 Um, okay. Sure, I'll play... "Based on indigenous technology..." Well, there's an excellent chance that this is simply bullshit. Much of the circuitry and most of the chips will be standard stuff, probably purchased from Motorola, Nokia, TI, Samsung - the usual suppliers. You don't build cleanroom chip fabrication facilities and do the design and all of the other aspects of this - ready for production runs, for $9M. Sorry - that doesn't add up. Their custom chip(s) will be produced elsewhere, prolly Indonesia or Malaysia. Methinks that likely one little programmable DSP contains locally produced microcode to gen their little Mecca pointer onscreen (the only unique thing identified and something the Arab Airlines have done on their in-flight progress screens for years). A funny thought occurs to me... if the US Govt ever turns off GPS, as in a time of war - as a recent article here implied was possible - there will be a buncha Muzzie asses pointed wrong-wise. How will Allan take it, heh? Their dependence upon technology continues to grow... Kudos on what they did "themselves" - and raspberries for implying they did it all. I've always wondered why Allan didn't embed digital watches with a compass in every Muslim's right wrist... |
Posted by: .com 2005-01-06 3:13:10 AM |