rlg Communications, in its quest to be the first indigenous company to revolutionlise the communication sector in the country and Africa has partnered Microsoft to enable it achieve that giant dream. Charles Benoni Okine reports.
THE Chief Executive Officer of rlg Communications and Chairman of AGAMS Group, Mr Roland Agambire, has stated that the deal with Microsoft is a landmark endorsement which will place the rlg laptops, computers and tablets on an equal footing as the other brands on the international market.
He told the Graphic Business that “it has been a long journey to achieve this feat and the company is excited about the move because it will not only give confidence to users of our products but also give us the nerve to conquer Africa”
His comments come on the back of a major partnership deal the company sealed with Microsoft Corporation of the United States of America (USA) in a move that paves the way for the company to incorporate all Microsoft software including the famous Windows on all its PCs, laptops and tablets.
The deal, described as a landmark opportunity for rlg, constitutes a key endorsement of the rlg brand which is already making waves in the country and other African countries. It further paves the way for the company’s quest to depart from the assembling of its products to full scale manufacturing of which 30,000 people would be employed.
By this, rlg will also begin to launch Microsoft Windows 8, which is expected to hit by the close of the year, and give credence to the quality of products being offered on the market.
“It is a great endorsement for rlg products because we have taken the careful look at the partnership and think that we should be able to give value to Ghanaians”, Mr Agambire said.
According to Mr Agambire, “This also allows us to make Microsoft Windows more affordable in terms of the pricing because we have very good pricing from Microsoft and we will be able to deliver that to the doorstep of the consumer by not quoting high prices for our laptops, desktops to the Ghanaians and other customers on the African continent as a whole”.
Most of the computers and laptops and tablets on the market have no inbuilt Microsoft and this opens the gateway for counterfeiting of Windows among many other applications developed by Microsoft.
Since most of the computers and laptops that hit the African market have no such licence, it is expected the giant move by rlg will enable it better compete with its competitors such as the Dell, Acer, Sony among others.
He said what rlg is doing in the ICT sector is to create the leadership role and create the environment that will allow other businesses to grow out of it and this will help Ghana to attract a lot of foreign investors and foreign income among others into the economy.
This, Mr Agambire said means that the foreign currencies that would have been spent to import components would be saved to help strengthen the cedi.
Mr Agambire said by the time rlg increased its market share in the sub-region, it will also be increasing the market share of Microsoft.
He expressed gratitude to Microsoft and hoped that the partnership will last long as the two parties grow their businesses.
Mr Onyeje said this relationship is a not a local relationship but an international one between rlg and Microsoft Corporation and it is at the same level as the other large brands across the world.
He said a lot of work was done in terms of due diligence to ensure that the deal stands the test of time.
Mr Onyeje said “Windows is the heart of who we are as Microsoft and anyone who comes to us to get Windows at special pricing come close to the heart of Microsoft and so this is significant and very important for us”.
He said the company is happy to be part of the rlg brand because in terms of the impact of providing computing to the masses, it is in line with the vision of the Founder of the company, Bill Gates who intends to put a PC in every desk in every home and “we find a partner to do that in rlg.
MICROSOFTMicrosoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, United States that develops, manufactures, licenses and supports a wide range of products and services related to computing. The company was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen on April 4, 1975. Microsoft is the world's largest software maker measured by revenues. It is also one of the world's most valuable companies.
Microsoft was established to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. It rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems.
The company's 1986 initial public offering, and subsequent rise in its share price, created an estimated three billionaires and 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees.
Since the 1990s, it has increasingly diversified from the operating system market and has made a number of corporate acquisitions. In May 2011, Microsoft acquired Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion in its largest acquisition to date.
As of 2012, Microsoft is market dominant in both the PC operating system and office suite markets (the latter with Microsoft Office). The company also produces a wide range of other software for desktops and servers, and is active in areas including internet search (with Bing), the video game industry (with the Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles), the digital services market (through MSN), and mobile phones (via the Windows Phone OS).
In June 2012, Microsoft announced that it would be entering the PC vendor market for the first time, with the launch of the Microsoft Surface tablet computer.
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