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29 March 2024

Handset maker hitches a ride on Arabic TV series

(REUTERS)

Published
By Nadim Kawach

After enlisting star singers in the region, Sony Ericsson is eying one of the most popular Arab television series in its drive to grab a bigger share of the lucrative Gulf mobile phone market and offset the slump in global demand.

The Syrian Bab Al Hara, Arabic for "the neighbourhood's gate", will be a key feature of a new Sony Ericsson handset to be launched in the UAE soon along with other models, one of which will have a staggering 12.1 MP camera.

Sony Ericsson dealers said the selection of Syrian soap drama was because it is one of the most popular television series in the Arab World and is watched by tens of millions across the Middle East, including the Gulf and North Africa.

"It is a right choice and we are sure it will work," said Irfan Ali, a salesman at Citadel, which distributes Sony Ericsson brands in the capital. Bab Al Hara has been broadcast during Ramadan over the past three years and a fourth part will be screened next Ramadan. The series chronicles the daily happenings and family dramas in an old neighbourhood in Damascus in the inter-war period under the French rule when the population yearned for independence.

Like many of the most recent popular Arabic series, Bab Al Hara is a Syrian production, financed by the Gulf satellite channels.

It reflects a new trend representing the shift of Arabic media dominance away from Egyptians to Syrians. As funding has become available from Gulf TV stations, Syrians have seen an exponential rise to dominance in the field Arab audiovisual and cinematic production over the past few years.

Dealers said the Swedish-Japanese giant has maintained its position as one of the top three mobile phone makers in the UAE along with Nokia and Samsung.

Official figures showed the mobile penetration rate in the UAE stood at 193 per cent at the end of February, up from 182 per cent in September last year. At the end of 2008, the UAE had more than 9,357,000 active mobile subscribers.

 

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