Infocomm to participate at Comex 2008

"We're really excited about this year's Comex," says Karim Rahemtulla MD of KOM based Infocomm. "It's a great opportunity for us to showcase our products and services particularly as regards m-Commerce which is becoming increasingly popular here in Oman."

But what is m-Commerce? It's using your mobile to make purchases and while not many of us have bought a book or a t-shirt in this way, an awful lot of us are buying ringtones and downloading games onto our phones. We're also taking up data services such as sports and stock market updates and weather reports. "It's a global trend," comments Rahemtulla "and Oman is right in there. It's a real growth area. Young people are powering it with their love of new and different ringtones and gaming but more and more adults are signing up for services like mobile phone banking."

Rahemtulla goes on to say, "Infocomm is not just about m-Commerce, exciting as this is, so Comex will give us the chance to highlight some of the other things we do, for example, our e-Learning solutions. Of course, e-Learning has been around for a while but several factors are coming together and are truly making it an idea whose time has come; it's because of new developments in technology, because now the e-Learning environment has its own personality and is not trying to replicate the classroom experience and let's face it, because people themselves are more comfortable with computers. It's a great time for e-Learning, just look at the e-Learning possibilities on Second Life, for example, that's tremendous. And without wishing to state the obvious, the flexibility of e-Learning opens up training to so many more people."

m-Commerce and e-Learning are not the only things that Infocomm wants to share with us: "We're keen to introduce people in Oman to the possibilities of advergaming," adds Rahemtulla. "And we want to use Comex as a platform to celebrate the success of www.isurf.co.om, our online community hub which is getting more than 200,000 visitors a month."

"What's been very rewarding about isurf," says an enthusiastic Rehan Moosa, webmaster of isurf, "is that users are a real cross-section of society. They are spread almost exactly equally between Omanis and expats, with a smattereing of tourists, but also we have a good mix of gender and occupation. It really is a website for the whole community and we're very proud that it has something for everyone from cinema listings, to events, to games and more besides."