Nokia unveils N9 smartphone in Lagos

Amb Ritta of Finland, Abba Gana of MTN, Ogunbor of Nokia

Nokia at the weekend unveiled its high end smartphone, the Nokia N9 into the Nigeria’s market in collaboration with leading mobile operator, MTN Nigeria.

Vice President, Nokia West Africa, Mr. James Rutherford said that this latest in stock smartphone has been built for people who appreciate a stunning blend of design and the latest smartphone technology.

Some of the feature of Nokia N9, he said, was built with the latest innovative technology, promises to re-define the way smartphones are used.

“With its groundbreaking technology and en-vogue look and feel, the Nokia N9 promises to be a worthy and striking companion to the style conscious consumer,” he said.

Stressing that Nokia N9, which is available in select markets across the world, is perfectly suited for Nigeria’s high-tech and style conscious consumer who demand best-in-class products.

Rutherford equally said the launch of the N9 is in line with Nokia’s commitment to meet customer demands for products that excel in performance and enhance their social standing.

The launch of Nokia N9 was surrounded with Fashion display in Lagos, he said, introduces an innovative new design where the home key is replaced by a simple gesture; a swipe.

“Whenever you’re in an application, swiping from the edge of the display takes you home. The three home views of the user interface are designed to give fast access to the most important things people do with a phone, using applications, staying up to date with notifications and social networks, and switching between activities,” he highlighted.

Further, he said, Nokia N9 comes with the latest in camera, navigation and audio technology for a great all-round experience.

“The 8-megapixel Carl Zeiss autofocus sensor, wide-angle lens, HD-quality video capture and large lens aperture enable great camera performance even in low-lighting conditions. This makes the Nokia N9 one of the best camera-phones ever produced,” he declared.

With its groundbreaking new technology and continued commitment to optimal user experience, the N9 epitomises Nokia’s challenger mindset. The eagerly anticipated phone are available in three colors - black, cyan, and magenta.

Also speaking at the event, the General Manager, Business Intelligence at MTN, Mr. Ibrahim Abba Gana who represented the managing director, Mr. Brett Goshen, said MTN as a leader in the Nigeria’s telecom industry was delighted to be associated with an iconic device as the Nokia N9.

He said MTN is offering a free data plan of 1.5GB valid for three months for all Nokia N9 users that are on its network.

Mr. Gana also said that MTN has the widest data coverage in Nigeria and beyond, just as the telecom operator would continue to seek opportunities to enrich the lives of Nigerians through value adding services.

Additionally, the Finnish Ambassador to Nigeria, Mrs. Riitta Korpivaara who was the special guest of honour at the launch said, given Nokia’s rich heritage, she had no doubt that Nokia would continue to meet that challenges of the respective markets where its devices are sold.

ITRealms Online gathered that the Nokia N9 is the last device with the Meego operating system that will be released from Nokia’s stable.

Remmy Nweke

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We value Nigeria’s market – Ceragon boss

The worldwide president of Israeli-headquartered Ceragon Networks Limited, Mr. Ira Palti has said that they value the Nigerian market hence the kind of investment the company has made late.

Some of these investments include manpower development which he said, has grown from about three to over 40 within a few years.

He also said that the objective of Ceragon is to ensure that operators in the ICT have the ability to provide service and grow Information Technology market in addition to encourage growth and end-users’ emancipation from unreliable services.

Briefing newsmen at the official opening of the Nigerian office in Lagos, Mr. Palti said the value rating of Nigerian market by Ceragon gave rise to the level of investment the company has made into the market.

Earlier in his remarks, the Executive Commissioner, Technical Services, Dr. Bashir Gwandu, who represented the Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) assured investors in the ICT sector of the Commission’s support in making enabling environment available for them to operate.

He also revealed that NCC is working the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to fast-track the deployment of spectrum on 700 Mega Hertz.

President of Africa Region at Ceragon, Mr. John Earley, pointed out that they really worked very hard to get networks to work with them so as to sustain their services and satisfy consumers and regulator’s demands on quality of service.

“We shall continue to invest,” he asserted.

For the country manager, Mr. Bekele Tadesse said that the visit by the global president of Ceragon to Nigeria to commission the Lagos office is a mark of commitment to this market by the company.

Also, he said, they have grown the employee with about 99 per cent of them being Nigerians, adding that Ceragon as a leader in its area is here to build services for the operators to optimize.

According to him, Ceragon is involving local dealers of its projects by training on how the products work and how to support such services to.

He cited on the company’s Long Haul, otherwise known as Evolution Series Internet Protocol (IP) which is a versatile and cost-effective microwave radio solution for long distance, high capacity telecommunications networks.

This, he explained allows carriers to smoothly migrate from legacy Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) to all-IP, satisfying the ever-increasing demand for bandwidth, while keeping revenue generating on second generation (2G) or third generation (3G) services intact.

Remmy Nweke

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Zinox partners Zaria Academy on PC diffusion

Zinox Computers and Zaria Academy have entered into a partnership to boost Personal Computer (PC) diffusion plus awards for the best performing five students annually.

The partnership has been designed to support the Zaria Academy with the technology, skills and the competitive spirit to consolidate the gains of its unique model.

Chairman, Zinox Computers, Dr. Leo Stan Ekeh, gave this insight recently at the end of his business visit to the academy, noting that the school has unique model worthy of emulation that distinguishes the Academy from the national poor performance of schools at the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) theory test.

He commended the Zaria Academy for recording tremendous success in the May June 2010 WAEC results by scoring 90 per cent, a clear indication that the academy model was working and worthy of emulation and support.

Ekeh also noted that the Zaria Academy model addresses three core questions that educationists must answer in Nigeria today, namely, how do we get our children to spend longer hours each day reading? How do we get them to spend more time in the classrooms? How do we ensure that what is taught is relevant to industry needs thus making graduates employable?

All these, he said, are answered with the launch of the “Zinox WhizKid” in mind, stressing that the mini Notebook loaded with over two million e–books and 100,000 simulated WAEC, NECO, GCE and JAMB questions, answers and more.

He assured that this star product which their e -Educational Research/Development dept. spent millions of Naira to produce has proven to be a miracle tool for good students.

Aside providing 100 Zinox WhizKids and other digital equipment for teaching and learning, Zinox he said, would also train four teachers in her laboratory for one week to drive this vision of excellence.

Further, he made it known that an annual grants of N250,000 and a laptop for the Best Overall student, N200,000 plus a laptop for the 2nd Best, N150,000 plus a laptop for the 3rd Best, N100,000 and a laptop for the 4th Best, and N50,000 plus a laptop for the 5th Best.

Ekeh urged the staff and students to take advantage of the Information Technology (IT) tools that the proprietor, Dr Haroun Adamu has painstakingly assembled, adding that no one in the world is destined to be poor in this century and Zinox is all about altering the destiny of young Nigerians positively.

He reminded them that the key to wealth creation is hard work with genius accounting for 1 per cent and perspiration 99 per cent.

The knowledge deficit, that is, the gap between what is expected of a  student and actual performance and knowledge in relation to WAEC, JAMB, and NECO, he pointed out have become so alarming that well meaning Nigerians are genuinely worried about the future.

He reaffirmed Zinox’s commitment to reduction of this knowledge deficit with a N250, 000,000 budget for research into strategies to make learning and teaching more fulfilling.

Earlier, the proprietor and chairman, Governing Council of Zaria Academy, Dr. Haroun Adamu, described Dr. Ekeh’s return to Nigeria 25 years ago as very eventful because the gentleman carried himself with the nothing–is–impossible air of a miracle worker.

Dr. Adamu said this has led to the success story that is Zinox Group and its subsidiaries today, urging the students to emulate the drive of the Zinox chairman, Dr. Ekeh.

Some of the students who spoke said that they wanted a new Nigeria based on the Zinox vision.

Remmy Nweke

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VConnect introduces ‘Post ur requirement’

Lagos-based local search engine, VConnect Global Services Ltd, has introduced a new interactive service on the web portal tagged “Post Your Requirement.”

The General Manager, VConnect, Mr. Deepankar Rustagi who disclosed this at the weekend said that the new service is to facilitate convenient and faster connection between consumers and suppliers through the web portal by helping the consumer to get the best of bargaining and right supplier for goods and services free of cost.

He explained that the service allows the consumers the opportunity to source for suppliers and compare prices and make final selection within the comfort of his or her home or office by simply posting the required goods and services on VConnect portal.

What this feature does, he said, is that it enables users to get quotation for goods and services required from different suppliers who are already registered on the web portal by simply posting the requirement on the website.

“VConnect then forwards it to relevant suppliers who get back to the user with different quotations thereby providing an opportunity to choose the best,” he said.

On how the service works, Mr. Rustagi said all the user needs to do is to log on VConnect site, go to the ‘post your requirement’ page, and enter whatever goods or services one needs.

He cited an instance with customized T-Shirt and leaves the contact details. VConnect contacts the relevant suppliers and the user gets feedback in no time at all.

Rustagi noted that with this new service on VConnect web portal, the jobs of procurement professionals, administrators, marketing professional secretaries, small medium business owners who usually have needs to source for suppliers have been simplified.

Meanwhile, just recently, VConnect Global Services Ltd won the ‘Personalized Information Product of the Year’ by RIMA Foundation Award at 2011 edition.

The Records and Information Management Awareness Foundation (RIMA Foundation), is a non-profit organisation that seeks to promote access to information, raise public consciousness on the need for proper management and security of information, and encourage the overall development of the information management community.

President, RIMA Foundation, Mr. Oyedokun A Oyewole, revealed that the award was presented to VConnect at the 2011 RIMA awards ceremony for individual and corporate organisations in the record and information management sector held at Sheraton hotels, Ikeja, Lagos.

Remmy Nweke

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German coy loses Facebook page to US rival

Germany’s Merck KGaA has threatened legal action after losing its Facebook page to a United States (US)-based rival Merck & Co, reports TechWorld.

Merck said it intends to initiate an action based on the apparent takeover of its Facebook page by its similarly named but unrelated competitor, Merck & Co.

The filing reflects the growing importance of social networks as marketing tools, with companies willing to go to court to safeguard their perceived rights on these networks.

Because Facebook is an important marketing device, the page is of great value, and its misappropriation is causing harm to the company, said Merck KGaA in the filing.

The company in Darmstadt claims to be the oldest and one of the largest producers of pharmaceuticals and chemicals worldwide.

The Facebook page contained on Friday information on the American Merck, which is described as “a global healthcare leader working to help the world be well.” The site is said to be intended only for residents of the United States and its territories.

On September 16, it carried a post welcoming users to “Merck’s official Facebook page!”

Merck in Germany said in the filing that it entered into an agreement with Facebook on or about March, 2010 for the exclusive use of the web page. 

Merck said it assigned administrative rights to the web page to a limited number of people, who are its employees, or its external service provider for registration of domain names and social media user names.

By about October 11 this year, Merck Germany said it found that it no longer had administrative rights to the page which now had content that appeared to be “created by, and is related to” Merck & Co in the United States (US).

Remmy Nweke with agency reports.

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Stakeholders review draft software policy

Stakeholders in the nation’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector, last Friday, commenced the review of a draft software policy.

The event organized by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), witnessed the submissions of the draft software policy by a national committee set up on December 2010.

Chairman of the 21-man committee, Prof. Charles Akinyokun, said that the team was inaugurated on December 6, 2010 were drawn from the stakeholders’ organization including government through the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, NITDA, Institute of Software Practitioners (ISPON), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Computer and Allied Products Dealers Association of Nigeria (CAPDAN) and civil societies.

He also commended his committee members for working within the mandates given to the group, while expressing their appreciation to NITDA for the opportunity given to the Committee to serve the nation.

The outcome of which, he said, would help in stimulating investment and job creation within the IT industry and software subsector particularly.

In his address to the occasion, Director-General, NITDA, Prof. Cleopas Angaye, said that the inauguration of the committee was based on the recognition of the fact that ICT has been globally accepted as the major tool for sustainable socio-economic development in the current global economy, underscoring the fact that software development is the engine of this powerful tool.

“It is apparent that the software industry no doubt is of utmost importance to future competitiveness for economies across the globe, especially with its halo effect in creating related business opportunities,” he said.

Angaye pointed out that for Nigeria to effectively participate in the new globally economy, there is need to develop a robust software policy with appropriate implementation strategies.

According to him, during the national retreat organized by the National Software Policy Committee, some 11 months ago, noting that in a study of the economic impact of the software industry in SouthEast Asia countries, it was discovered that there was a conservative multiplying economic effect of about .17 for upstream and downstream industries.

“End-user industries also benefit enormously from reduced cost, increased productivity and increased business opportunities,” he said.

Further, he pointed out that Nigeria has tried some initiatives to enhance the software industry in the recent past, adding that these efforts include the National Software Development Initiative, National Software Development Taskforce and the national IT policy.

Despite these, he said Nigeria has not been able to adequately explore the full potentials of the industry in a way to make software Nigeria a major player in the global software industry.

“You will agree with me that the work of this committee is very apt and of utmost importance to the current administration’s Transformation Agenda,” he declared.

Special Adviser to the Minister of Communications Technology, Mr. Ola Ogunneye, disclosed that the Ministry has received the ICT policy.

“The policy on ICT is ready and has been submitted to the minister and we are here to observe and ensure that we are all working on the same page,” he said.

The minister, he said, is thinking of software laboratories where Nigeria could incubate the youths on software development.

He encouraged participants to critic the draft policy on software.

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