The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Right-to-Left Localization for Mobile Devices

1. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Right-to-Left Localization for Mobile Devices By: Amr Zaki Operation Manager Saudisoft Co. Ltd Amr.zaki@saudisoft.com June 2012

2. Agenda The Good Mobile devices Market Data in Middle East Why BIDI Languages Localization is important What is Right to Left (Bi Directional = BIDI) ? The Bad Arabic vs. Hebrew BIDI Unicode Markers BIDI Software Enabling The Ugly BIDI Challenges

4. Mobile devices Market Data in Middle East A Survey done by Plus7 during Mobile Show for GCC countries, interviewed 4326 candidate • 90% of Saudi Arabia smartphone users preferred Arabic Ads • 40% of UAE smartphone users preferred Arabic Ads Source: http://mediame.com/news/digital_media/plus7_reveals_research_results_mobile_internet_consumption_habits_mobile_show

5. Mobile devices Market Data in Middle East - Continue Percentage of online purchasing using smartphones: • 33% in UAE, Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia • 25% in Oman • 40% in Bahrain Source: http://mediame.com/news/digital_media/plus7_reveals_research_results_mobile_internet_consumption_habits_mobile_show

6. Mobile devices Market Data in Middle East - Continue • Consumers are using the mobile internet to access news, information, social networks and email • In terms of attitudes towards eCommerce, more than half the respondents preferred cash on delivery over credit cards when making purchases via their mobile phones Source: http://mediame.com/news/digital_media/plus7_reveals_research_results_mobile_internet_consumption_habits_mobile_show

7. Mobile devices Market Data in Middle East - Continue • In KSA, the preferred method of accessing mobile information and news is via mobile sites. • In the UAE, KSA and Egypt products purchased (or likely to be purchased) on the mobile are related to Entertainment, Technology and Travel

8. Why BIDI Languages Localization is important • Big Market Share • Huge potential in new categories like Banking, Healthcare, etc. • Social and news applications still have a way to go.

9. What is Right to Left (BIDI) ? Quiz • There are 3 ways of writing scripts worldwide: • Left to Right • Right to Left • Vertical • Arabic script is not used only in Middle East and Arabic countries but many for example: • Urdu Pakistan, Dari Afghanistan , Uygur (PRC) China, Persian Iran, Sindhi Pakistan, Panjabi Pakistan

10. Quiz What is Right to Left (BIDI) ? - Continue • Arabic & Hebrew characters are the only Right to Left languages.

12. Arabic vs. Hebrew

13. BIDI Unicode Markers Unicode provides special, invisible formatting codes to set the base direction for or to override the bidirectional algorithm in plain text. These are the following:

14. BIDI Unicode Markers - Continue Bidirectional Character Types:

15. BIDI Unicode Markers - Continue RLM:

16. BIDI Unicode Markers - Continue RLE & PDF:

17. BIDI Software Enabling • Enabling Software to work from right to left was a complicated task but now with the new SDK’s and tools, it became easier • There are 2 ways to enable applications to start from Right to Left: • Code • Resources • Code enabling needs development to modify any API calls such as CreateWindow() • Resources enabling works on resources level using Resource Editor which available in the market now.

18. BIDI Software Enabling - Continue

20. BIDI Challenges • Many devices don’t have Arabic / Hebrew Script support. • Slower performance comparing to LTR • BIDI support can be implemented using external development.

21. BIDI Challenges - Wrong Date

22. BIDI Challenges – Wrong Control

23. BIDI Challenges – Controls & Images

24. BIDI Challenges – Wrong Control direction

25. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly New Market, High revenue Full of constrains Lots of Challenges and High technical experience required

26. Questions?