The Only App Localization Tutorial You Will Ever Need
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Only</strong> <strong>App</strong> <strong>Localization</strong> <strong>Tutorial</strong> <strong>You</strong> <strong>Will</strong> <strong>Ever</strong> <strong>Need</strong><br />
Why Localize An <strong>App</strong>?<br />
<strong>Ever</strong>yone in your team and other stakeholders in your organization should understand why<br />
localization is being done. <strong>The</strong> following facts can help explain.<br />
● More than 50% of countries in the top ten for downloading and paying for apps are<br />
non-English speaking, says a survey by Common Sense Advisory.<br />
● More than 50% of customers around the world only buy from websites in their own<br />
language.<br />
● <strong>Only</strong> around 15% of all people on the planet speak English as a first or second language.<br />
Clearly, limiting your app to just one language version, whether English or another, cuts you off<br />
from potentially large markets. Conversely, suitable app localization can seriously boost your<br />
app sales revenues.<br />
What Should <strong>You</strong> Localize?<br />
Ideally, everything. For a given localization language, not only should the user interface and the<br />
functionality be localized, but also any resources the app makes available to the user, and any<br />
texts and graphics used to advertise or sell it. Ideally, native language speakers using a<br />
localized version of your app will assume the app was developed in their language from the<br />
ground up, because it looks so natural to them.<br />
<strong>The</strong> devil is in the details. A localization defect like using a period instead of a comma as a<br />
numerical separator (for example, 1.000 in French instead of 1,000 in English to represent one<br />
thousand) may look small to non-native users. However, it will probably be glaring for native<br />
speaker app users. As another example, the meaning of images and colors can change radically<br />
from one country to another. Consider the following: in China, red stands for good fortune, in<br />
France, communism, and in South Africa, mourning. Even app or product names can trip you<br />
up. For instance, mobile phone vendor Nokia discovered late in the day that the name of its<br />
flagship phone “Lumia” meant prostitute in Spanish. A little thought and googling can go a long<br />
way to avoid this kind of mistake.<br />
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