Re: AUGD: Middle East Liaison?
Re: AUGD: Middle East Liaison?
- Subject: Re: AUGD: Middle East Liaison?
- From: Magnus Nystedt <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:09:02 +0400
Asalam Aleykoum Yasser
I didn't know you guys were starting up, that's great :-) I'll
definitely post about you on Emiratesmac.com and we should also do a
story on you for Shufflegazine print and Shufflegazine.com.
I think Apple users around the region feel left out a bit in terms of
market representation (Apple not being here it's all through Arab
Business Machine ABM), including no iTunes music/tv/movie store, no
AppleCare, etc. And although that's not a user group matter as such
I think it affects their feelings with regards to user groups as well.
I've been in touch with guys in Saudi, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar who
have had more or less mature thoughts about starting a user group but
they've run into problems along the way and stopped. Some of the
reasons are the same as any group in the world, like no response from
Apple after sending in first registration. We had that same problem
and it was only after me bugging the advisory board and liaisons we
got rolling (thanks guys!). But the comment I get again and again is
that "Apple doesn't care about the Middle East" and there is no
information on appleme.ae or contact person for user groups on that
site either (for those who don't know that's not an Apple Inc site,
that's the site of ABM, Apple's distributor in the ME region).
But besides that, the Middle East is a region in many ways different
from Southern Europe or Eastern Asia, under which we now fall in the
liaison allocation (which I'm not quite sure, think we're subject to
David in China). As I mentioned before, we're a market of around 300
million people (AFAIK) and we have as user groups no representation
where other areas, much smaller than ourselves, have representation. I
don't mean to pick on anyone in particular, but for example, in the US
there are many regional liaisons and then entire population of the US
is about the same as the ME region's. Of course there are more Mac
users in the US than here, that's where Apple is based, so that's
natural in some ways. But I guess my view is that Apple in terms of
new users is growing faster here than most anywhere else so it's a
market that Apple should acknowledge in various ways, including in
terms of user groups.
An idea I've pitched to ABM before, and which I would assume they'd
bring up with Apple Europe and Apple Inc but I don't know if they
have, is for them to appoint someone working in ABM as caretaker of
user groups in the region. Someone who can support them in various
ways with information, advice, etc. Someone who will keep in touch
with these communities, online or offline, and basically be a
community builder and nurturer because that's something that's needed
here. People are uncertain about the concept of a user group but
people here are also very social and communal and they like to hang
out together.
And now we also have a great vehicle to unite user groups under and to
communicate with the entire region and it's Shufflegazine.
I was probably writing way too much, as I often do :-)
Regards
Magnus
On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 12:50 AM, Yasser Ghazi <email@hidden> wrote:
> Hi
> Magnus, we here at EAUG have been waiting for Apple to put us on the locater
> for almost 3 month now!!
>>
>> "We have people interested in starting user groups but they feel Apple is
>> ignoring them, and I can understand why."
>
> Can you also elaborate why you think Apple is ignoring user groups from our
> region?
> --
> Yasser Ghazi
> President & Ambassador Egyptian Apple User Group (EAUG)
> http://egyptianapple.com
>
--
Magnus Nystedt
Apple Certified Help Desk Specialist
Apple Product Professional
President & Ambassador EmiratesMac User Group
email@hidden
www.emiratesmac.com
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