The two-day “Mobily Application Developers Conference 2012” started Saturday at the Four Seasons Hotel in Riyadh, participated by a large group of local and international experts in information technology as well as amateur developers, professional mobile application developers in addition to senior officials of Mobily. The CEO of Mobily, Khalid AlKaf, opened the conference with a speech about the future of telecommunications and information technology. He said “the technical world today is running at an accelerated pace, each day witness significant shifts and developments created by human need to communicate in social media; Facebook for example, recorded hundreds of millions of users in few years, this large turnout came from the desire inherent in humans to communicate, which wouldn't have succeeded without those needs.” He noted the great demand for data and Mobily's ability to meet this demand, saying “Mobily received several years ago a certificate from the GSM association confirming that Mobily has the busiest data network around the world. Mobily owns today a strong infrastructure supporting the 3G and 4G networks.” Dr. Marwan AlAhmadi, the CBO of Mobily, spoke about cloud computing and its impact on the business sector. He said “the technology of cloud computing is really a significant leap in terms of the optimal use of resources, whether infrastructure or software platforms or for commercial activities. With high quality connectivity between sources and end users of information and resources, it is likely for cloud computing services to contribute to the deployment of advanced automation systems for all kind of companies at with cost effective prices.” The conference also held a number of workshops, including a workshop about innovation in the new media and the transition to digital platforms to improve the services provided to customers, in addition to innovation in Arabic and Islamic applications, as well as e-government applications. And another from Microsoft, Samsung and BlackBerry, represented by a number of experts in the region. Mobily Developers Awards with a cash prize of $90,000 were conferred and distributed equally on the three winners last night. — SG
