Mobile phone sales at historic high during DSS

Commenting on the trend, Neal Barros, general manager of Globalnet attributed the unprecedented growth to the vast number of job seekers and international tourists who visited the country during DSS 2006.

"Thousands of job seekers arrive in the UAE on visit visas every day and many of them decide to stay back and look for employment," said Neal Barros. "Getting connected quickly becomes their top priority, so the first thing they buy is a mobile phone."

Sales are also being driven by the millions of tourists and shoppers that flock to the UAE each year during events like the DSF, GITEX and DSS. They don't want to pay exorbitant roaming charges - at the same time, they don't want to switch off their mobile phones either, because they want to be contactable in case of any emergency at home or related to business.

"It's about convenience", says Neal Barros. "We all use our mobile phone as an address book too - all important numbers are stored in the phone, so switching it off is not an option. The problem is easily solved by buying a low cost handset as a second phone and using recharge cards for the duration of their stay. Most of them already own a trendy phone like a RAZR - all they want is a reliable handset to keep them connected while they are here."

For such users, buying a handset like the Motorola C-113 which only costs Dh99 makes perfect purchasing sense. "After all, Dh100 is considerably less than what they would spend on dinner in a decent restaurant", concluded Barros.