UAE’s first offline business directory takes off

DUBAI- As more and more people look for smart, mobile and cost-free ways of accessing and using the information, a Dubai-based company has taken the lead in making our world further smart by announcing the launch of the UAE’s first offline business directory for Smart phones, without an internet connection or even a mobile network.

Scheduled for launch on August 7 at a gala ceremony in Dubai, the management team of Offline Mobile Business Directory LLC (OMBD) said Call UAE (www.call-uae.com) is free Mobile App adaptable with all Smart phones.

“With a whopping 17 million Mobile phone users and 12.41 million Smart Phone users in UAE, the First Offline Business Directory (Yellow Pages) is expected to bring about a meaningful difference to the way the information is accessed and the consumer buying behavior gets influenced,” said Aboobacker A Kodath, Managing Director, OMBD.

Call UAE is free Mobile App adaptable with all Smart Phones. With over 400,000 listings and more than 5,000 search categories, Call UAE is the only “patented” offline Search Engine for Business Data in the UAE.

Search categories include Emergency Services, Classifieds, Tourist Places, Entertainment, Company listings, Helpline, RTA Fine Enquiry, Dubai Metro Info, Airlines, Currency and Gold Rates, to list a few.

For those seeking Brand visibility and reach out to customers, a bouquet of marketing and promotion options are available including Banner Ads, Videos, Retail Promo Offers and Multiple Listing Facility.

Once downloaded using internet, it works without an internet (GPRS/3G) connection and in fact doesn’t even need a network connection. It enables people to carry a yellow page on their phone free of cost.

Call UAE is one of its kind offline mobile application that is compatible with lower end Android and Windows mobile handsets as well as the high end devices such as iPhones. The app functions without Internet connectivity, be it GPRS, 3G or even Wi-Fi.

OMBD has a vision to benefit the common man by leveraging technology the best possible way. Along with the business listings and contact information of essential services, the user- friendly app also provides the facility to dial directly as well as to locate the required destination with the help of a map which traces the route from the users’ location to the desired destination (GPS enabled service). It also carries information about emergency services, details about the local tourist attractions.

“CALL UAE has been developed keeping in mind the typical customer’s requirements. It provides end users more options than any traditional online or printed directory.It guarantees better accessibility, ease of use and offers hundreds of categories and thousands of listings as a one-time download. The app has been designed to assist the customer in saving time and money and brings information at one’s finger tips without any hassle,” said Kodath.

CALL UAE is available for the mobile Operating Systems/Platforms: Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, iPhone and most tabs ipads.

The fat yellow page directory has been around almost as long as the telephone, but in the words of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the “Yellow Pages usage amongst people below 50 will drop to near zero over the next five years.”

Younger, affluent, tech-savvy, better-informed and more plugged-in people have already made the switch. They go online to find the information they need to make buying decisions. They search. They turn to social media, where they trust the opinions of friends more than anything that is nothing short of advertising. They want to be informed—then make their own conclusions.

Every business needs to adopt such methods in order to be visible to potential customers. Simply having a website is not the answer. Most of the information about a particular business that searchers find shows up on other websites.

The role of the yellow pages directory has been taken over by multiple methods due to changed behavior of customers. Now, the younger and diverse buyers are wiser in the use of online methods and improved communication methods with Smart phones.

There is a greater sophistication by buyers in their ability to find exactly what they want; coupled with their less willingness to just “settle” for what is at hand.

While 82 per cent of consumers use search engines to find local businesses, they use the information they find in a variety of ways. Unfortunately, small enterprises are lagging behind in reach out to the consumers whose buying behaviors have been changing fast.

For most types of businesses, people may turn to the yellow pages directory to find the address or location, but sources say, about 10 per cent of uncommitted but potential buyers are being tapped in many other ways as well; some very aggressively by alternative marketing practices and user-friendly online technology options.