Sacha Walters-Gregory, Staff Reporter

Intcomex Jamaica, local distributor of information technology and hardware, officially launched a new brand of mobile devices called Nuqleo last Thursday at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel.

The buzz words at the cocktails reception were quality and reasonable price, with regional sales manager for the brand, Oscar Gordillo, emphasising the features of the products, detailing in particular the Quantum 7, Nuqleo's seven-inch tablet.

"They're good quality products, well assembled and affordable to the user," said Gordillo of the line, which additionally, includes cellular phones, which all have dual SIM card capabilities. The phones are the Quark 2, Ion Lite, Neon Touch, Cromo, and Fusion, among which smart phones are in the mix.

Nuqleo is the newest brand for the Florida-based holding company Accvent.

"You can get a smart phone for half the price, less than half the price," said Matthew DeLeon, managing director of Intcomex Jamaica, of the Nuqleo brand of products which they began distributing late last year.

Deleon said he hoped the price-friendly brand would have a big impact on education as it is conducive to students who need technology at their fingertips but cannot pay what is required to acquire one of the high-end brands.

Improving internet penetration

Dwight Williams, head of products at Lime Jamaica, concurred, noting that their company wants to improve the internet penetration in Jamaican households, which now stands at 20 per cent. He highlighted two main hindrances to this: the cost of the device, for example a computer or a tablet; and the cost of the service itself.

"Remember, the Internet is not a luxury, it is a basic necessity," said Williams, expounding that they had partnered with Intcomex to offer persons who sign up for their browse-and-talk plan, which is a bundle of internet and talk time on landline phones at $2,500 plus GCT, special rates on the Quantum 7, the Nuqleo tablet.

"This partnership allows Lime to offer its Internet subscribers lower than market prices on computers and tablets. The Nuqleo tablet is one such device included in the browse-and-talk Intcomex offer. The seven-inch tablet is perfect for customers. It's portable, and you can access your favourite websites," he said, further highlighting the wireless connectivity capability and the opportunity to access thousands of android applications.

Andre Sewell owner of Techshopja.com, an online electronic sales company, who purchases the tablets from Intcomex started selling them last December and said the response has been excellent so far.

"It works pretty well. The display is pretty clean. It doesn't work the fastest, but it won't frustrate you," said Sewell of the product he retails for $13,000 and has thus far sold about 70.

sacha.walters@gleanerjm.com