Dubai electronics trade show GITEX kicks off

Tech fans in Dubai queued Saturday to get their hands on the latest gadgets for the lowest prices as this year’s annual consumer electronics trade show GITEX Shopper.

The 8-day event, which organizers say the largest and most popular consumer IT and electronics show in the Middle East, took place in Dubai’s World Trade Centre, and features the latest products and cut-price deals on items ranging from smartphones, TV’s, and digital cameras.

Retailers and brands including Asus, Nikon, and Samsung are keen to use the event to promote their products and increase sales are planning large giveaways. Mahesh Chotrani, a senior executive of UAE electronics retailer Jacky’s Electronics, said that the chain would be giving away two Mini Coopers at GITEX according to a press release.

Dubai-based resident Sebastian D’Chuna told UAE-based online daily Emirates 247 that he had come to the event to buy an iPhone 6.

“It all depends on the price and the bundle offers that are being offered by retailers,” he said. “If the older Apple models are being offered at a bargain, I have no qualms in snapping up the iPhone 5s if I get a, say, second free phone with it.”

Buyer beware

But he and other GITEX visitors may be out of luck. Dubai-based newspaper Gulf News reported on the same day that Dubai retailers of Apple’s newly-released smartphone - which has been plagued with a glitchy operating system and reports of bending since its launch last week - had run out of stock and that no units would be available for sale on the first day of GITEX.

One visitor from the nearby emirate of Sharjah claimed that retailers used the event to unload dead stock on “unsuspecting customers.”

“Most of the bundle offers are usually additions of dead stock that retailers are trying to off load on unsuspecting customers... Brand loyalty aside, the retail that negotiates the final price after I rid us of the bundle offers gets my business.”