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ETEN & Samir Digital Technology's Press Conference

May 09, 2006 - Shangri La Hotel, Dubai

May 11, 2006

Introduction

Samir Digital Technology (SDT), Dubai, the regional distributor of ETEN and other products, along with ETEN had an exclusive press conference in Shangri La Hotel, Dubai. PPCD has coverage of the press-conference which hints about the future product line up from ETEN and some information for the ETEN users.

What is it about?

We know that ETEN has established its name in this region with its simple but yet powerful product line up in Dubai.

SDT has steered ETEN in this path by being its regional distributor. SDT is not new to the market, having its grounds in Middle-East for more than decades.

ETEN and SDT have partnered to bring a new force to the PDA market in the Middle-East. As a part of the marketing program, ETEN along with SDT presented this press conference.

What Happened?

The program was scheduled to start at 19:00. Understanding the traffic, SDT had managed to start with full-house of press people around 19:45. SDT members from marketing, technical support and all were present in the Hall all the time.

The program started with SDT showing their company profile and their strategy with ETEN for Middle-East. This was followed by the presentation from ETEN about their profile and small peek into the future products (read more below).

This was followed by some question-answer section and a small raffle draw and concluded with the dinner.

Future Products from ETEN - roadmap.

ETEN has hinted for the following range of products. The name and technical specs for the devices will be announced later. (Keep watching for the same)

All-In-one device: this will be a killer machine. This will be a quite thinner model (18mm only) and will be powered with a sliding keyboard, and almost all features like GPS, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth and everything.
Device with push-email functionality.
Device with TV function in it.

Question & Answers

There were some questions from the press. Here are some,

PPCD: Customer Support. What have you planned for the ‘technical support for ETEN users?
SDT: SDT has its own service team to take care of all the technical support for UAE based customers. This will definitely reduce the time taken in servicing the device for any problems. SDT also gives the customers with standby devices, till the device is repaired.

PPCD: We need technical support from the device developers. We are looking for ROM upgrades from the ETEN itself as a ‘club’ site. Do you have plans for that?
ETEN: We are planning for the same. We will soon be releasing the website for the OS upgrades (ROM upgrades). This will definitely help the customers in fulfilling their needs.

PPCD: eten-users.net is a website, where we get ROM upgrades, which is not supported from ETEN. Why so? Will ETEN have forum of its own?
Our future plans include the plan for discussion forum also. We will definitely include this.

PPCD: Do you plan for any ‘high-end’ devices like JasJar?
ETEN: As described in the product line up, we have plan for All-In-One device, which will definitely suit your needs.

PPCD: Don’t you think that ETN is slow in adapting to the market. We have devices in the market already with GPS and then we had the G500 release. We already have device with FM. ETEN is still to release the ROM patch for G500 in this regards. We already have imate releasing the patches for ‘push mail’. ETEN is yet to release a device for this. What do you feel?
ETEN: We are trying to catch up with the market with their needs. We are making sure that the device and software released are FULLY tested and does not return at all.

Plans from ETEN

Later during the dinner, I had an exclusive chat with ‘Pedro Ko’ from ETEN.

PPCD: Hi, from my experience and the user survey last year, we found that 60% of PPC users do not even do the upgrade. They tend to use the software that is available with the device itself. So, having sold large number of G500 to the market, ETEN has failed to impress us in FM radio part. The device has FM hardware, and no software support.
ETEN: We understand it. We had developed the device with full functional FM hardware, but we had to do the testing fully for the FM. So, we did not release it with FM. We will definitely release the ROM upgrade soon.

PPCD: Any specific names for the proposed devices?
ETEN: We will discuss with SDT and release the names soon. Keep looking in the website for details.

PPCD: When will you be able to release the all-in-one device?
ETEN: We are planning to release one of the devices by June. We will put the details in web-site.

PPCD: How are the ROM upgrades managed now?
ETEN: We send the OS Upgraded (ROM upgrades) to the redistributors (SDT in Dubai), and they will take care of the release.

PPCD: Will you be releasing the future ROM upgrades in your proposed new web-site?
ETEN: I will have to check with the software team on it. This also depends on the type of upgrades.

PPCD: On my usage of G500, battery is good, but it was not very good. Please do something. Because, here in Dubai, people believe in one device for more purpose (I include it as a MP3 player too). So, we need more battery.
ETEN: I will definitely look into this and keep my R&D team informed about it.

Raffle Draw

SDT conducted a raffle draw using the ‘business cards’ of the guests. 2 lucky winners were chosen and were given a M600 & G500. (SKP, better luck next time)