Islamic mobile phone going on sale in Europe reminds Muslims of prayer time, contains Quran

Islamic mobile phone going on sale in Europe reminds Muslims of prayer time, contains Quran

Anthony Deutchs Associated Press/The Hague, Netherlands

For Muslims, it's a high-tech call to prayer.

The Ilkone i800 cellular telephone generates five automated reminders a day at prayer time, points Muslims in the direction of Mecca and contains a complete, authorized version of the Islamic holy book, the Quran, in Arabic and English.

This week, Ilkone -- Arabic for universe -- went on sale in the Netherlands for its European debut. It will be followed by launches in France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Belgium and Bosnia in coming months, said Peter Suyk, the managing director of Lebara BV, the phone's European distributor.

Made by the Dubai, United Arab Emirates-based startup Samcom, Ilkone's entry into the European market follows a successful introduction in the Middle East and Asia, where it is available in 23 countries.

Advertised as "the first and only Islamic phone that gives you access to your beliefs wherever you are," it retails in Dutch telecommunications outlets for US$356, excluding a mobile phone subscription.

A first batch of around 1,200 phones were available at around 150 BelCompany stores across the Netherlands. "They are selling well and there is a lot of interest. We are ready to supply more when needed," Suyk said.

The Dutch launch comes three weeks before the holy Islamic fasting month Ramadan, which culminates in the three-day festival of Idul Fitri, when friends and family gather to pray, share meals and exchange gifts.

Samcom hopes that this year, Muslims in the Netherlands will give each other its Ilkone i800 telephone, which has been discounted through Nov. 3 to $292.15.

"There are more than 1 million Muslims in the Netherlands. If 5 percent of them buy our phone over the next year, that's 50,000 customers," Suyk said. "It's not just a niche market."

Lebara has targeted young Muslims in the Netherlands since 2004 when it began selling Subscribers Identification Module, or SIM, cards for cheap mobile international calls.

But reactions from potential buyers on Thursday were lukewarm.

One young Muslim, 15-year-old Mohammed Bouyeri, sat outside Rotterdam's largest mosque, the Mevlana, waiting for prayers to end. He looked skeptically at the phone and asked: "Does it have a camera?"

The fact that it doesn't might be a deterrent for trendy young Muslim buyers in the West who may be looking for the latest technological features, such as built-in digital music players and video recorders.

"I wouldn't buy one. It might be useful for someone at home or traveling, but not at the mosque. Everyone here already knows what time prayers are," said Bouyeri.

Eric de Leeuw, a salesman at a busy BelCompany outlet in downtown Rotterdam, said his store sold one phone a day since it went on sale. "That's good when you compare it to other phones. I wouldn't want one, but it'll sell when the word gets around."

Buyers, however, seemed more interested in the new, sleek Nokia 8800 phone, which has more advanced technology, but sells for three times the price.

Suyk of Lebara said it's hard to advertise to splintered Muslim communities in Europe which generally don't read the same magazines or watch the same TV channels.

The i800 converts important dates between the Christian Georgian and Islamic Hijri calendars, has an electronic compass to find the direction of Mecca, and produces prayer alarms for more than 5,000 cities, including an audible call to prayer, the azan. It then automatically switches to "silent mode."

The foldable, 80-gram (2.8 ounce), i800 handset comes in silver, blue, gold and white and has an array of less devout features, such as action games on a high-quality color screen, a personal organizer, 40 polyphonic melodies and ring tones.

With menus in seven languages, it uses European general packet radio services (GPRS) technology that allows users high-speed Internet access.

The phone's religious angle scared off some potential outlets in the Netherlands, who feared it would deter secular customers, but Ilkone Sales Manager Ed Delfino in Dubai said that has not been a problem. Even though the phone is relatively expensive, the European market is vast with some 20 million Muslims, he said.

Samcom is a consortium of companies set up in 1999 and includes the ACTCO Group, one of the biggest construction companies in the Persian Gulf, and South Korea's LG Electronics. --- On the Net: http://www.ilkonetel.com

GetAP 1.00 -- SEP 23, 2005 17:54:15