Huawei has partnered with STC to launch Huawei Ascend P1 smartphone in Saudi Arabia. The launch of the Ascend P1 was made during a press event held at Al Faisalia Hotel in Riyadh in the presence of STC Vice President of Retail, Engineer Ibrahim Al Omar, and Jiao Jian, Middle East President of Huawei Device.

The Ascend P1 launch marks the first Huawei smartphone to be introduced regionally under the company's new Ascend Platinum series and comes fully-loaded with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS and features a powerful dual-core 1.5GHz processor with a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen with Corning Gorilla Glass.

STC has made the device available free of charge for postpaid customers who subscribe to the SR249 package with 300 minutes of voice calls, 300 short text messages(SMSs), 500MB of data and 300 Multimedia Messages(MMS). Furthermore, the device is also available for SR699 with the SR149 package with 200 minutes of voice calls, 200 SMSs, 250MB of data usage and 200 MMSs. As a third option, the device is available for SR1199 with the SR99 package with 100 minutes of voice calls, 100 SMSs, 120MB of data and 100 MMSs. STC has also made the device available to new prepaid customers for SR1799 including 5MB of data for the three months.

STC has partnered with Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, in light of its innovative history and especially since this agreement marks the second of its kind collaboration with Huawei in the device realm. STC is currently deploying the Ascend P1 in various locations across the Kingdom.

On the launch occasion, Engineer Ibrahim Al Omar stated: "We at STC dedicate our abilities to forming global partnerships with leading international smartphone manufacturers in our efforts to provide unparalleled quality services. The launch of the new device from Huawei and STC aims to provide a modern technical platform for smart phone devices and showcase our leading role to provide technological solutions in the region and achieve customer satisfaction by nourishing their passion of owning the latest devices in the region's smart phone market."

Jiao Jian, Middle East President of Huawei Device stated, "Through fostering our solid relationship with STC, we believe that Huawei's long-standing strengths in research and development (R&D) are now being showcased more distinctly and competitively through the launch of our Ascend Platinum series. We plan on establishing Huawei as one of the top five global smartphone vendors within the next two years and reaching top three status by 2015."