US giant Microsoft on Thursday launched the latest version of its Office series, the XP, which comes integrated with Internet-based services, reported the Gulf News.
The Arabic version will be available simultaneously.
Pilot projects involving the software were recently started at the Dubai-based Emirates Group, Emirates Bank Group, the Al Tayer Group and the Public Warehousing Co. in Kuwait, said the paper.
Those regional organizations have enterprise agreements with Microsoft and are entitled to free XP upgrades.
There are an estimated 6 million legally installed Windows bases in the Middle East and North Africa, according to a senior company official. The six Gulf states and Egypt alone account for 4 million, the paper said.
"With about 500,000 PCs and 26,000 servers expected to be shipped out in the next 12 months, the Middle East is still one of the fastest-growing markets," said Behram Mohazzebi, general manager of Microsoft's Gulf and Eastern Mediterranean (GEM) territory.
"And to support that, there are the e-government initiatives, the tough stance on intellectual property rights, and the mature e-business solutions coming out of the region."
The estimated PC installed base in the GEM area, which excludes Saudi Arabia and Egypt, is about 2 million.
Nevertheless, Mideast managers still put IT issues at the bottom of their priority list, according to a recent Microsoft survey.
In Saudi Arabia and Egypt, less than 10 percent of the 700 respondents attached an importance to IT issues, and in the UAE, it was 12 percent, the report said.
Expansion and growth followed by sales and profits were the top priorities – Albawaba.com
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