Qatari developer’s number updating software, a major hit Monday, 19 July 2010 03:27

By HUDA NV

DOHA: With less than 10 days left for the for ictQatar’s new numbering plan to become effective, software that update contact numbers on mobile handsets automatically are in high demand. Among the most popular software that are being downloaded include Qontact, a mobile application developed by a Qatari app developer.

“Qontacts is a free, open source, cross platform mobile application, that updates the Qatari contacts' numbers, stored on the mobile device, to the new Qatari numbering plan,” said Abdulrahman Alotaiba, arguably the first Qatari App Store (a service created by Apple) author.

Alotaiba, who works in a private company here, had been developing Internet applications for some 10 years before he switched recently to mobile applications, which he feels is more fascinating.

“Qontacts targets almost all the popular handset models and operating systems, that is, iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung, and many other models that can run Java ME applications. To make it easier for the users, the software server will automatically detect the user’s mobile model, system, language and download the right version of Qontacts,” he told The Peninsula.

Qontacts works by analysing the user’s contacts and then displays only the contacts that need to be updated to the new ictQatar numbering plan.

“The user can then decide whether to update all or selected contacts. They can also have a preview of which numbers of a particular contact are going to be updated. It will not display any international or updated contacts, or numbers that does not conform to the new numbering plan.” Qontacts’ smart analysis detects different numbering schemes, which the user may use to store contacts information. The analysis, and update procedure, conforms to the rules defined by ictQatar for the new numbering system.

“The software has many features that make it popular. It analyzes user’s contacts to determine which contact needs to be updated. The user can select, deselect, and update the contacts to the new Qatari numbering scheme, which provides a convenient way to update the contacts. The user can select an individual contact to display the changes, and update that particular contact without affecting the rest of the contacts. Moreover, it supports and detects both Arabic and English user interfaces,” he said.

The whole project was developed and funded entirely by Alotaiba.

Though the software is free for downloading on Internet, during the development, he had to pay Apple, and RIM, in order to be certified and allowed to publish iPhone, and BlackBerry applications. He also had to buy various mobile handsets to test this application.

“As the software supports all the major phones, according to Gartner analysis report for Q4 2009, the coverage of Qontacts support, based on handset operating system, is estimated at 85 percent of global market share.

Another research done by Canalys for Q2 2009, shows that Qontacts is supported on 87.7percent of the global market share by operating system,” he said.

Qontacts is now available for free download on http://www.qontactsapp.com/download/

THE PENINSULA

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