Toshiba enters Iraq and Yemen

The move comes at a time when demand for notebooks in both markets is growing due to increasing confidence in the future economy and Toshiba views the move as one that will increase its strong foothold on the Middle East notebooks market.

Samer Sayed, sales and marketing manager for Toshiba Computer Systems Division for Saudi Arabia, said the agreement with i2 was reached due to its presence in both markets in terms of sales and after-sales service.

"i2 is one of the largest mobile phone distributors in the region, with more than 250 stores in over 17 countries," said Khalil. "i2 is focused on the same target market that we're focused on which a young, tech-savvy market with a continuous demand for new technology.

"One of the main reasons that i2 was chosen as Toshiba's notebook distributor in Yemen and Iraq was that i2 has offices and service centres in both markets, allowing them to adopt Toshiba's required levels of pre-sales and after-sales support."

Toshiba will provide product training and support to i2 staff in Yemen and Iraq with i2 engineers undertaking an accredited certification course to ensure the service centres meet Toshiba's requirements for authorization.

Sayed added that Toshiba is very optimistic about the agreement, stating; "Toshiba anticipates that the market in Yemen will experience rapid growth over the next three years due to improving education standards and reach combined with developing retail opportunities.

"We expect market growth will be 100% year-on-year during the same period, growing to an annual market of 36,000 units," he said.

Whilst there is still a degree of instability in Iraq, Khalil believes this will change relatively soon. In the short-term Toshiba will target the enterprise market prior to developing long-term retail opportunities.

"In Iraq, we will target corporate business while the country develops political and social stability. Growth year-on-year for Iraq should be close to 50% with an expected 60,000 units sold per year by 2009," concluded Samer.