Saturday 27 / July / 2024
Muscat: The first Omani designed and manufactured computer has been launched by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology (MTCIT). Produced by Al Onsor Company, the computer was launched at the Knowledge Oasis Muscat.
The event was attended by Eng. Said bin Homoud Al Maawali, Minister of MTCIT, and a number of high-level officials from the public sector, along with staff members of Al Onsor Company, and a number of supporters from the private sector companies.
The first Omani computer was designed and manufactured by young and capable Omani talents, with the support of Sas Centre for Entrepreneurship at MTCIT. The design of the computer is in line with the latest technologies in the market.
A light-weight machine, it has features such as an ID card reader, the possibility of conversion into a touch-enabled tablet device, and the option to add a mobile nano SIM card to connect to the Internet via 3G or 4G network. Furthermore, a smart fingerprint reader and Arabic inscriptions give the device a modern and authentic touch.
The laptop is equipped with the latest tenth-generation Intel processors, and the laptop types are divided based on the speed of the processor with different options of storage memory and random access memory.
The basic computers come with a high-quality FHD touch screen that can be folded at a 360-degree angle to be used as a tablet. The processor options are: Intel Celeron, Intel Pentium, Intel core i3, Intel core i5 and Intel core i7.
Al Onsor’s engineers have designed three types of computers, namely: desktop, all-in-one, and portable multi-use computer (2-in-1 notebook).
The company decided to start manufacturing laptops due to coronavirus pandemic conditions in the world and the institutions’ direction to work and study remotely.
On the sidelines of the launch, an investment agreement was signed between Oman ICT Group, the body responsible for driving the ICT sector and Al Onsor company, the first company founded by Omani youth in the field of electronic engineering and computer design in the Sultanate and MENA region, to invest in Al Onsor Company by enhancing the current production line of the computers with the new technologies such as, the Internet of Things and robotics.
The group will cover all the capital and operational costs and a large portion of the company’s shares will be owned by the founders.
The agreement was signed by Eng Said bin Abdullah Al Mandhari, the CEO of Oman ICT Group and Eng Muaadh bin Ahmed Al Hinai, one of the founders of Al Onsor company.
On this occasion, Dr Ali bin Amer Al Shidhani, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology for Communications and Information Technology, affirmed that the Ministry is committed to encourage and support Omani companies specialised in communications and information technology to move forward towards innovation and development in its various fields, which in turn can contribute to the transfer of technology in the Sultanate.
The incubation of the Ministry for this emerging company to design a computer motherboard is an example for the Ministry efforts to incubate the small and medium enterprises in the field of technology and communications, through Sas Center for Entrepreneurship, which provides these emerging startups with an equipped environment to start their commercial businesses, and provides them with the necessary guidance and consultancy.
“The ministry also seeks to transfer advanced technologies in the information technology industry, and to cooperate with international technology companies and attract them to the Sultanate. The ministry is also working on putting plans to promote free and open source software technologies by providing advanced training for young people on these technologies to enable them to produce programmes and solutions to benefit the local market, as well as pushing them to expand to external markets,” Al Shidhani said.
Sheikh Talal bin Saeed Al Maamari, CEO of Omantel, the supporting company, commented, “one of the main pillars of Omantel strategy is to invest in young talents empowering them to unlock their potential by adopting their ideas and activities and utilising the company’s long experience to maintain and sustain their ideas and projects. We have supported a number of initiatives that we are proud of, such as the ‘Upgrade’ programme, which aims to transfer graduation projects of university students into emerging startups, as well as the programme for supporting ideas in partnership with the National Business Centre and the 5G Initiative to motivate university students to develop applications that contribute to community service using the latest technologies and many other initiatives that were adopted with a belief in the power of youth and to contribute to empowering them to play a vital role in society.”
“Today we are witnessing a unique project that must be supported and encouraged and that we should stand by to enhance the presence of its product in the local markets as a competitive national product with high quality. This device must be our first choice as individuals and institutions in light of the presence of a wide range of large international companies competing and manufacturing similar products.
The specialists and the technical companies backing Al Onsor have proven that the device is of high reliable quality,” he affirmed.
