Dubai: The UAE controls 60 per cent of mobile phone applications development in the Middle East, according to research conducted by Flagship Projects, a local applications developer.

"The penetration of these kinds of mobile applications is tremendous in the UAE. The UAE has become a global player, thanks to its openness to the world economically and technologically and its world class infrastructure," said Shadi Hasan, managing director of Flagship Projects.

UAE's established ICT infrastructure and availability of the latest smartphone models and computers have attracted the attention of ICT investors to the region.

"The UAE's role as a commercial centre in the region where many telecom companies have their headquarters here means it is in a position to attract mobile app development. Some government bodies have also got an arm developing mobile," Matthew Reed, senior analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media told Gulf News.

According to Hasan, the most widely used apps in the Arab world are related to entertainment, such as music and social news and religion such as the Quran and Islamic lectures, prayer times and Hajri timings. An estimated 40 per cent of smartphone users use between six and ten applications daily.

Increased use

The increased use of phone apps has grown in line with the popularity of smartphones in the region, The majority of interest for apps in the local market is for BlackBerry and Apple's devices, said Mohammad Husani, marketing director of Haiku, a French applications developer in a previous interview.

"Smartphone sales are expected to eclipse desktop computer sales by 2012, and in 2013 people will pay all their bills through mobile devices, including buying coffee, transferring money and reading your books and magazines," said Hasan.

Because of this growing trend, mobile applications are becoming an essential requirement for companies to service their businesses and customers. While it is still at a very nascent stage, an increasing number of companies are using phone apps to service their business and customers.

Advanced sector

Local companies such as Emirates NBD are making a move in that direction. They have upgraded their online service site to be compatible with mobile phones and have also recently launched their Unstructured Supplement Data Service (USSD) that takes a user from a phone call to a display menu with a list of services.

The UAE government is also moving aggressively into adopting these applications.

Statistics show that the number of governmental applications in the UAE is between 20 and 25.

Other countries in the region with a fast growing telecoms industry includes Jordan.

"It has quite an advanced IT sector with positive government programmes to encourage technology companies. Jordan could be another place where a lot of development is taking place," Reed said.

Saudi Arabia also has the biggest regional telecom market in terms of revenue and the biggest within the Arabian Peninsula in terms of the number of subscribers, but lack the initiative shown in Jordan, according to Reed.