Nokia: Arabic support coming to Windows Phone in second half of 2012

October 13, 2011 | By Surur

The biggest issue on Microsoft’s User Voice site for Windows Phone is support for Arabic and other RTL languages on Windows Phone.

Via an interview by Nokia we now know the time scale of this delivery, which will likely give us an indication of when the next major update for Windows Phone OS will be coming.

In the interview Nokia says it plans to bring its Windows Phone to the Middle East in the second half of 2012 as the device will not support Arabic when it is first launched in the European market this quarter, a top executive said.

“We will launch and start selling this quarter in Europe, because Windows Phone has the language support for European countries. However, it doesn’t support Arabic until second half of next year. We won’t say it’s a launch in this region because it needs Arabic,” Tom Farrell, Nokia’s general manager of Lower Gulf–a region comprising United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman–told Zawya Dow Jones in a recent interview.

We do not know yet what else the update will bring, but we can at least tick off one box.

Are our Arabic speaking readers disappointed that they will have to wait at least 8 months? Let us know below.

About Surur

Site Admin and Windows Phone enthusiast, he has been using Windows Mobile devices since before they were called PocketPC’s. He is currently sporting a HTC 7 Trophy.

Tagged arabic, farsi, persian, windows 8

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=511032001 Rudy Zeinoun

Of course disappointed. How do they expect to sell ANY device in the North Africa and Middle East and Gulf countries if they don’t have Arabic support? All their competitors (mainly iPhone and BlackBerry) have full Arabic support. No one’s gonna buy this if it doesn’t at least type Arabic (UI is not as important for many).
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=881950505 Bassam Abboud

I have an HTC HD7, and frankly I don’t care about Arabic Support, what bothers me more is that there is no Marketplace for most of the region’s countries (mainly Lebanon, where I live) and that I can’t change my Locale on the Zune pass to Lebanon so i can buy apps instead of sticking with free ones and trials… Not to mention having no onboard GPS navigator and many other more important disappointments…
I say work on those three first, then work on the Arabic issue.

Steven D’Souza

I agree. I live in Kuwait and I love my Mozart. But the Marketplace really kills it for me. I cant buy anything since the Marketplace is not supported here. Additionally, a US account wont allow me to use a Kuwait Credit Card, which Apple supports.
Microsoft really need to introduce the Marketplace to different regions prior to making compatibility with that region. Give people in a region to get used to WP7 and when they demand for more, then introduce localisations and customsations.

Anonymous

Microsoft use postcode matching for their credit card verification. Use a credit card in which the postcode of the billing address exist in US. Lookup that postcode in Google Maps, then note down the nearest address. You can use random street name and street number as long as it’s in the coverage of the postcode.

Next create new US Windows Live ID, attach it as the main ID on the phone (you may have to hard reset the phone), open Marketplace, and register your card on the phone using the address you have noted. You MUST register it on the phone. It will fail to verify the card if you do it on web or via Zune software.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=881950505 Bassam Abboud

It’s frustrating to have to go through an entire workaround to be able to PAY THEM MONEY!!!
Although what you suggest may solve the issue, for now, it is not a permanent solution.
They should expand their reach to our region.

Anonymous

supporting the middle east region should also mean the ability to also buy apps and games from the market place you can’t support middle east without allowing them to buy apps for the devices that you are going to sell

Thomas Bundgaard

I’m guessing this will arrive with “Apollo” (WP8).

MS has earlier said, that they will provided (on average) two updates a year. A small one in the spring, like NoDo, and a big one in the fall like Mango.
Anonymous

finallllllllllllllllllllly thank you you made my day
http://twitter.com/naraby Nidal Arabi

of course I am. they should release it with tango 1
http://twitter.com/HbbAli Habeeb A. AlAli

What..? That means I’m stuck with my android more and more :’(
It’s not only 8 months, there is the time passed I’ve been waiting

BTW, Arabic and Persian support are the top topics in UserVoice website
So why are you delaying or maybe ignoring that point??

http://affar.myopenid.com/ Affar

well i sacrificed the Arabic support for third party apps that will allow me to write Arabic. It is like the first releases of Android where people will use apps just to read and write Arabic

http://twitter.com/HbbAli Habeeb A. AlAli

The problem is that I’m relaying heavily on my phone
and I can’t give up the Arabic support

I really busy all the time thinking should I shift to WP7 now or not

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_M572ZUXUZPSNERJOPPU5OKSQ4Q Fawzi

Windows Phone sucks and lack of Arabic Apps and way
behind iPhone so forget about windows phone. If you want the real Arabic supports
go with iPhone support Arabic 100% and there are thousands of Arabic
applications for iPhone.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Ahmed-Mahfouz/876305081 Ahmed Mahfouz

it’s just ridiculous, I mean if it is the first item on the UserVoice website then it HAS to be one of the first items to be included in the upcoming update or else that’ll mean that the site is just meaningless.
Whats more frustrating is that Arabic is already workign fine in the hubs but not in the browser so it just feels so close.

Seriously MS, either give people what they want (based on your own surveys) or drop the act.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=607310574 Fathy Essam

Totally frostrating piece of News
Anonymous

Microsoft is acting as if they have forever to succeed. Not just this but the entire platform. I am more skeptical about WP’s chances to survive every day. And with Mango, everyone is resting on their laurels like they’ve reached the pinnacle of perfection. Well I have news for you: YOU’RE TOO DAMN SLOW. WP7 should have launched with Mango a year ago. This is starting to feel like Symbian. I bet when the platform is dead, a year from now, they will release some really cool updates like Nokia did with Anna and Belle.

Olof Palme

Duktig pojke, känns det bättre?

Anonymous

that’s good news for me cos I was waiting long to support arabic language I am waitin Nokia phone with windows phone
Anonymous

It’s good to finally hear that it’s coming, although it will not come any time soon.

After the iPhone supported Arabic, it became the top seller here (Saudi Arabia), together with Blackberry which became a trend the last couple of years, just for the BBM.

It used to be a Nokia exclusive market just a few years ago (with some windows mobile devices). Now, it’s either iPhone or Blackberry, or both (which is very common).

Android is starting to show up, especially with some decent language support from the operators or manufacturers.

Windows phone was launched 10 months ago here, but with no marketing at all .. literally!.

Never seen one Ad, not on TV not on a poster, and I think I’ve never seen one device at display at any store.

Those who tried the phone loved it, but once they hit the language and marketplace barrier they get really disappointed.

People still carry their Nokia phones (usually for Navigation), and use Microsoft’s services heavily (like Hotmail and Messenger), and that’s a great opportunity for WP.

But 10 months is a long time, I don’t know what will happen then.

http://kickass77.myopenid.com/ NanYang

“Those who tried the phone loved it, but once they hit the language and marketplace barrier they get really disappointed.”

Bingo! That’s why WP7 is still not my main phone. Lots of features are still not applicable in Asia.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=670105580 Phil Chan

I hope with Nokia’s help, Tango1 can get more input methods for Chinese Traditional text. Although Mango comes with Chinese Traditional UI support, Hong Kong users are alienated by the lack of sufficient Chinese Traditional input methods. The only two Chinese Traditional input methods are Handwriting and BoPoMoFo, with the latter being a Taiwan-only method that is completely alien to Hong Kong users. ChangJie, Quick (simplified version of ChangJie), or WuBi are all missing. What’s even worse is that the Handwriting input method does not recognize any Hong Kong or Cantonese specific characters.
http://twitter.com/AhmedGhanem1991 Ahmed Ghanem

I don’t consider it a problem at all, waiting for 8 more months will allow the OS to become even more mature, and in the 2nd quarter of 2012 there’ll most likely be new devices released and dual core support will come as well so I’m willing to wait.

http://kickass77.myopenid.com/ NanYang

Why not you wait till 2013 then? It will be even more mature by then! Wait, why not wait till end of the world instead?

http://twitter.com/AhmedGhanem1991 Ahmed Ghanem

Sarcasm aside, logically there’s a point where you decide that a particular OS is mature enough for you to adapt, I don’t think WP has reached that point yet, at least not for me, and I mentioned earlier that I’m waiting for features like dual core support, better and more natural Tellme integration, and Marketplace availability… so to answer your question, no I will not wait till the end of the world, I’ll just wait enough.

http://twitter.com/aalfaify Abdulkhaleg Alfaify

really I’m disappointed. I don’t why MS doesn’t support Arabic language. we need just Arabic keyboard and appearing the Arabic word in browser by right way. i mean connect the letters and that is it. I think it’s easy to do that. So, why Steve Ballmer came to Saudi Arabia last year and did small conference about windows phone platform and doesn’t support our language???!!!!!
I hope to see Arabic language support soon in next update… Thanks
Jimbo

In ‘Nokia speak’, sometime in 2012= sometime in 2013, maybe. If anybody has followed Nokia in the past, they’re notorious for constant, huge delays.
Anonymous

if i buy it from Europe can i install arabic when released??