A slideshow of Emirates Computers' rich history and thirty years of excellence in technology.

2. LOOKING BACK
EMIRATES COMPUTERS 1978-2008

3. 1978
Port Rashed opens 35 new
berths to accommodate
flourishing trade.
Ralph Boustani & Ali Al Dhaheri
establish Emirates Computers in
Abu Dhabi, in partnership with
Wang Computers, introducing
word processing to the region.

4. 1981
The standard for all
future PCs is born at IBM.
EC opens offices in the
World Trade Center
in Dubai.

5. 1983
Relational Software renames
itself Oracle Corporation.
EC begins in-house
development of
bilingual applications
and introduces Wang
Enterprise email and
office automation.

6. 1984
At the age of 19, Michael Dell
builds PC clones out of his
dorm room, founding a
company he calls ‘PC’s Limited’.
EC partners with Multitech,
later to become Acer, one of
the first Taiwanese companies
to invade the tech world.

7. 1987
The number of internet hosts
tops the 10,000 mark. UUNET
Communications Services sells
the first-ever commercial Internet
connection.
EC partners with Oracle and
migrates EC’s business
applications to Oracle’s new
RDBMS platform.
EC launches Wang Imaging (WIIS).

8. 1991
Adobe introduces the
Portable Document Format
(PDF).
EC partners with Nokia, the
company that supplied the
equipment used to make the
world’s first GSM call.
EC teams up with SGI to
launch mainstream
supercomputing in the Middle
East against established Cray,
IBM and Digital.

9. 1993
CERN releases the World
Wide Web software into
the public domain.
EC partners with Cisco,
the first multi-protocol
router vendor.
EC rethinks its 15-year
old partnership with
Wang.

10. 1994
Mosaic Communications
Corporation, later known as
Netscape, is founded.
EC & SGI totally dominate the
supercomputing & graphics
workstation market in the UAE.
EC’s new management steers
the company forward, marking
the beginning of the company's
second life (EC 2.0)

11. 1998
Microsoft releases
Windows ’98.
EC teams up with DELL.

12. 1999
Voice Over Internet Protocol
(VoIP) and MP3 are introduced.
EC launches Hyperlink, focusing
on Oracle Applications
consultancy and implementation.

13. 2000
The Internet boom causes startups
to quickly develop into big players.
Time Warner & AOL merge.
EC achieves Cisco’s IP
Telephony specialization.
EC establishes new
partnerships with Vignette and
Brocat.

14. 2001
Google becomes the first major
search engine to go beyond
indexing only HTML and text
documents.
EC opts for non-exclusivity of
Nokia handsets to compete in
open markets.
EC signs an agreement with
Microsoft for Microsoft Business
Solutions.

15. 2004
The web evolves into a
Techno-Social phenomena
called Web 2.0.
EC launches
TechnoWorld, its
consumer
distribution arm.

16. 2005
YouTube is founded.
EC opens its second Nokia
concept store, the first in
Dubai.
EC wins several awards
in recognition for its
achievements.

17. 2006
Apple’s iTunes Music Store
is acknowledged as the
world’s biggest online
music store retailer.
EC introduces Smart Living
at Gitex, attains new levels
of certifications and wins
yet more awards.

18. 2007
The UAE records
more than 10.4% in
economic growth.
EC launches E2 in
Saudi Arabia, E3 in
Qatar and Siyana in
Pakistan.

19. 2008
EC celebrates 30 years of
continuous success.