Mobile App Localization

Arabic is a challenge when it comes to mobile apps localization. Right to Left "RTL" nature of Arabic, no existence of abbreviations or acronyms are a few of the challenges that you may encounter when you localize your app into Arabic. We can make turn these challenges into opportunities. Here are a few things to take into considerations before you outsource your app for localizations. Knowing that the number one mobile broadband community in the world is Saudi Arabia represents a great opportunity for your business.

Our company performs a great deal of Arabic localization work for end clients and a number of other localization vendors. Very little has been written about Arabic mobile application localization thus far. Here are a few points for mobile application developers to consider who may be considering entering the MENA (Middle East / North Africa) region with their applications:

Most mobile applications today do not support Arabic encoding and Right-to-Left text support.
Mobile apps with Arabic UI will be increasing rapidly as smart phones (iPhone and BlackBerry currently the regions market leads for smart phones) are growing in the Arabic market. Smart phones will have 50% market share in the region by 2015 for mobile devices.
iPhone, BlackBerry, Android support Arabic reading and typing. Google is working on native Arabic support for Android; it's coming soon, but no date has been set yet.
Google has promised that they are developing a paid Android Market for the MENA region, as a free app market is already available.
Mobile application usage and downloads in the Arab world: 50% is from Nokia, 30% from Apple phones.
The number one mobile broadband community in the world is Saudi Arabia.

source: http://blog.globalizationpartners.com/what-to-consider-for-mobile-applic...