The Pakistan Mobile App Awards is an annual competition governed by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in collaboration with Ministry of IT and Telecom Pakistan, Special Talent Exchange Program (STEP) and Telenor.

The program has been developed to promote new ideas and push innovation in technology its accessibility. This year the participants were challenged to work on digital inclusion, embracing the needs of people with disabilities, the theme was hence titled as “Embracing Mobile Accessibility”.

Representing Orient Electronics and its technology wing BlueEast Pvt. Ltd., the team of Smart Devices entered the competition with a home automation product and a disability application for visually impaired individuals.

Their solution which won the first prize in the Pakistan Mobile App Awards was based on a smart switch board and an accompanying application that allows you to remotely control your switches and plugged in appliances.

“We utilized the Google Talkback function in Android to design a user interface for visually impaired people,” explains the team leader for Orient Smart Devices, Abdul Ghaffar,

“The application hence comes with vibration and audible feedback that enables disabled people to control their living spaces through their mobile phones.”

The team is also working on voice enabled commands to further enhance their application accessibility.

The idea stemmed from the team’s personal motivation to address day-to-day challenges for disabled persons,

 “In 2014, a close friend was involved in terrible accident that disabled him. When I went to see him, I realized how difficult life was for him. He could not sleep because the lights and the air conditioner were on and he could not switch them off without help,”

explains Abdul Ghaffar,

“I wanted to do something to change that. This is why I developed Smart Devices and now with BlueEast we can focus on making this a reality.”

While the scope of Smart Devices has evolved considerably after acquisition, the focus of improving accessibility is still at the organization’s heart, albeit now reinforced by BlueEast’s backing and product vision.

“We are now working on multiple fronts. We want to be home, offices, automobiles, healthcare and even the industry,”

says a spokesperson from BlueEast Pvt. Ltd.

The award winning team has already furnished a ready for market product in collaboration with Orient Electronics which will hit the market soon.

“It’s been a crucial couple of months as the BlueEast team has been involved in product prototyping and its market ready eComfort component. However, we are committed to deliver on our goals of improving accessibility on a global scale,”

commented the CEO of the company, Abdul Rehman Talat,

“We are proud to have won the Pakistan Mobile App Awards and our excited to have Ghaffar lead the development in this segment from the front.”

About Smart Devices

Smart Devices, a former incubate of Plan9 is among the first Pakistani startups intends to focus on home automation and make the life easier for people with disabilities. It allows you to control your home appliances from any corner of the globe. Recently, Smart Devices has been acquired by Orient’s Internet of Things (IoT) division.

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A Multi-billion Dollar Market, Internet of Things (IoT) is aimed at connecting people so they are able to communicate, one with another.  Smart Devices, is a local IoT startup that facilitates you to control any electrical device remotely whilst sitting at your home or anywhere across the globe. Smart Devices incubated at Plan9 and accelerated at PlanX has been acquired by Bluestar, an IoT division of Orient.

IoT is the talk of the town nowadays! that’s why Smart Devices recognition came both domestically and internationally in a short period of time. They won Pakistan’s first IoT Award in 2015, they also got selected into the FbStart program by Facebook and won the National Mobile App Award in 2017.

Pakistani Startup Smart Devices was also nominated for World Summit Award,working  in collaboration with United Nations. After achieving mind bobbling success in Pakistan, they are competing with 178 Nations worldwide.

Attention never goes unnoticed. In 2016 a research and development wing of Orient Electronics, BlueEast Private Limited’s director Abdul Rehman Talat was quoted saying

“We have been monitoring Smart Devices and Abdul Ghaffar for about a year now. They have been without a doubt been the most promising startup in IOT, in Pakistan. “

Abdul Rehman Talat further added that,

“Smart Devices is the only local company that has a finished product. It’s a company that shares our vision of a connected Pakistan, we want to expand the horizons on person to machine and machine to person interactions. Acquiring Smart Devices has allowed us to pool in our resources and further our progress to our shared end goal. Ghaffar is an entrepreneur; he has the vision and enthusiasm to take our vision forward. With Ghaffar on board we now have more clarity, and you will yourself see the seeds of this investment yield their return, soon.”

After reflecting upon the matter the two, Abdul Ghaffar and Talat came upon an agreement by the end of 2016; the result being BlueEast’s focus upon Go to Markets for IoT and E-Commerce Solutions.

Ghaffar vision was seemingly similar to Abdul Rehman’s. To him Orient would always go ahead in IoT market than others for Orient is a reputed brand across the country. To him its only about aligning the goals at this point.

He recently quoted,

“Smart Devices had strong software and Orient have strong hardware. So, it was a good decision to go together. Our goal is to make Pakistan stand with the top IoT countries in the world. Smart Devices acquisition is the first of its kind in the region and with an industrial giant like Orient acquiring it, this proves Pakistan is ready for advance tech like IoT. I think it’s high time for IoT players to work together and create a better and common ecosystem.”

The Chairman of Punjab Information Technology Board, Vice Chancellor of ITU and Chairman of MITEFP, Dr Umar Saif, shared recently,

“the eco-system is truly flourishing right now. Many startups aspire for an investment, however sometimes being acquired can mean greater things for the entrepreneurs and their respected startup. This acquisition gives Abdul Ghaffar the chance to tap into Orient’s consumers and truly revolutionize the way Pakistanis interact with technology through IoT.”

Before the achievement to say the least, Smart Devices were incubated at Plan9 and the accelerated at PlanX. Ghaffar stated that

“PlanX helped us gain a lot of customers. They helped us in marketing and building a good brand from ground up. They also provided us access to mentors and networking opportunities. I think where are we today is because of PlanX.”

Will Smart Devices carry up the Wings or would the wind blow it away? Time must answer!

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