Business News

Today is the first day of the CTIA conference in New Orleans, an event that brings together the best and the brightest in the wireless telecommunications industry. This year, the Government of Israel is proud to have eighteen Israeli companies join the official Israel Pavilion at the conference. Their technologies range from mobile telecare and telemedicine solutions to mobile advertising and mobile device management. 

If you are at the CTIA conference this year, visit the Israel Pavilion, located in Hall F Booth 5139. 

For more information about the Israeli Pavilion or any of the participating conferences, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  

We invite you to attend Agritech Israel 2012, the 18th International Agricultural Technology Exhibition. Agritech Israel is one of the world’s most important exhibitions in the field of agricultural technologies. The exhibition will be held May 15 – 17, 2012 at the Israel Trade Fairs and Convention Center in Tel Aviv.

The exhibition program will include the conference of the International Committee for Plastics in Agriculture (CIPA). The conference is held once every three years and, in response to the invitation extended by the organizers of Agritech, the Committee decided to hold its 2012 Conference within the framework of the Agritech Exhibition.

We invite all those involved in manufacturing, marketing, R&D, as well as all those involved in the various agricultural sectors both directly and indirectly, to take part in the Agritech Exhibition.

To register, please email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

For more information, please click here. 

By Shmulik Shelach - Globes

Aharon Aharon will head Apple's first ever development center outside of its California headquarters.

Sources inform "Globes" that Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) has decided to open a development center in Israel focusing on semiconductors. The decision was taken even before the company entered into talks to acquire Herzliya-based flash storage solutions provider Anobit Ltd..Apple has hired Aharon Aharon, a veteran player in Israel's high tech industry, to lead the new development center.

Although Apple is a global innovation leader, the company is a relatively small investor in R&D. The producer of the iPad and iPhone invested $2.4 billion in R&D in 2010, which was only 2% of its revenue, much less proportionately than other high-tech companies.

Apple's deployment of R&D activities is in line with this policy and the company has only one technology development center, which is at company headquarters in Cupertino, California. All activities outside of company headquarters revolve around marketing, sales and support. Strategic development is carried out at home. The planned Israel center will therefore be the company's first such center outside of its California headquarters.

Aharon Aharon comes to Apple with a varied background that will assist him in setting up a semiconductors operation for a foreign company. His most high-tech venture was Camero Tech Ltd., which develops Radio Frequency (RF) based imaging systems, and which he founded in 2004 with Amir Beeri. Aharon serves as chairman of Camero Tech. Before that he was chairman of embedded security solutions developer Discretix Inc. and managed their Israel development center. Earlier still he was VP operations at Zoran Corp.(Nasdaq: ZRAN), having begun his career at IBM's Haifa development center where he reached the post of deputy director.

Aharon is scheduled to spend several months at Apple headquarters in Cupertino before returning to Israel to begin activities at the Apple Israel development center. Aharon will begin operations regardless of whether Apple buys an Israeli company, and will begin hiring staff suitable for the US company's planned areas of activity.

Read more: Apple to set up Israel development center

Google is planning to go an extra step for Israeli entrepreneurs. The company's R&D center in Israel will open a tech incubator for about 20 Israeli startups in each round.

The startups will receive office space, an Internet connection, and expertise from one of the world's most innovative and powerful companies. The startups will range from cloud to mobile to open-source. The incubator will be close to the Google Israel R&D facility in Tel Aviv. 

In recent years, Google Israel has been famous for releasing many of the company's most admired features, including Google Instant and Google Suggest. 

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