The first computer designed and manufactured in Oman by Al Onsor Company was launched on Monday. Now available to buy, the launch by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology (MTCIT), was held at Knowledge Oasis Muscat. 

The event was attended by H E Eng Said bin Hamoud bin Said al Ma’awali, Minister of Transport, Communications and Information Technology, a number of senior officials from the public sector, Al Onsor staff who worked on the laptop project and officials of supporting companies. 

The laptop was designed and manufactured by a team of young and talented Omanis with the support of the SAS Centre for Entrepreneurship at MTCIT. The design of the laptop is in line with the latest technologies, light weight and equipped with features such as ID card reader, the possibility of converting it into a touch-enabled tablet and the option to add a mobile (nano SIM) card to connect to the Internet via a 3G or 4G network. 

Additionally, it has a smart fingerprint reader.

The laptops come with the latest 10th generation Intel processor and specs of variants are based on the speed of the processor with different options of storage memory and random access memory. The processor options are Intel Celeron, Intel Pentium, Intel Core i3, Intel Core i5 and Intel Core i7. The basic edition of the laptop comes with a high-quality FHD touchscreen that can be folded 360° to be used as a tablet.

Prices range from RO90 to RO300.

On the sidelines of the launch, an investment agreement was signed between Oman ICT Group, responsible for driving the ICT sector, and Al Onsor, to invest in the latter and enhance the current production line with new technologies, including robotics. The group will cover capital and operational costs, while a large part of the company’s shares will be owned by its founders. The agreement was signed by Eng Said al Mandhari, CEO of Oman ICT Group, and Eng Muaadh al Hinai, one of the founders of Al Onsor.

On the occasion, H E Dr Ali bin Amer al Shidhani, Undersecretary for Communications and Information Technology at MTCIT, said the ministry is committed to encourage and support Omani companies specialised in communications and information technology to move forward towards innovation and development in various fields, which in turn can contribute to the transfer of technology in the sultanate. 

“The ministry is also working on plans to promote free and open source software technologies by providing advanced training for young people in these technologies to enable them to produce programmes and solutions to benefit the local market, as well as push them to expand to external markets,” Shidhani added.

On the occasion, Sheikh Talal bin Saeed al Maamari, CEO of Omantel, which supported Al Onsor in its laptop project, said, “One of the main pillars of Omantel’s strategy is to invest in young talent, empowering them to unlock their potential by adopting their ideas and activities, and utilise the company’s long experience to maintain and sustain youth ideas and projects. We have supported a number of initiatives that we are proud of.”

He added, “Today we are witnessing a unique case that must be supported and encouraged, one that we should stand by in the local market as a competitive national product of high quality. This device must be our first choice as individuals and institutions. The specialists and the technical companies backing Al Onsor have proved that the device is of high reliable quality.”