There is an explosion in the number of mobile phones being handled by people in all corners of the world. But more exponentially, there is a never-before-seen increase in the number and frequency with which apps are consumed on these devices.
Now take a counterintuitive look at this growth: There’s also a hard-to-overlook shortage of high-quality localized apps in emerging markets as we gather from an ArabNet report. And do you know the irony? This is holding back app adoption and usage!
We’re not talking about tribals or Luddites, but smartphone owners in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates and about 2,500 of them. The survey highlights that Arabic-language apps faced resistance to downloads because 30% of respondents perceived them to be of poor quality. Then there were 16% who didn’t seem as interested in downloading thanks to a bad experience with an app they had in the past. Now consider this: Even if 34% here indicated a preference for international apps, they were unlikely to have the same level of relevant information and services as localized Arabic apps.
Do you understand drift?
Your application may be the most cunning, fluid and superhuman in the midst of a group of rivals in your home country or in a major international market, but it will regress and be reduced to a mere “additional execution” if it is not adapted to a local region. , culture, market or language.
That, my friends, is what they call – Location. The good news and the bad news is that it can have a profound effect on the ROI of the app.
If your app doesn’t support a certain country, locale, language, or culture, you’ll be seeing the wrong side of some numbers. Remember what Distimo (App Annie), a publisher of app data and statistics, revealed in a survey covering 200 apps “The Impact of App Translations”? Downloads can increase by 128% and revenue by 26% just one week after publishing an iPhone app in a new language! That should explain why, in an experiment, David Janner, editor-in-chief of MAKE APP magazine, got up to 767% more downloads when he secured localization of app keywords.
ROI happens easily when you take care of a few fundamentals about localization:
1. Placement should address all the small and large components that can define a user experience and app adherence. They can be data time formats, currency, keyboard usage, form factor differences, symbols and corollary, layout optimization, expressions that work there, other nuances and usage habits a new audience would gravitate towards, localization of images, user details. experience and design too. Instructions and design that work in English will not necessarily work in other regions and languages. So pay attention to differences in expansion, form factor used, spacing, left-to-right and right-to-left support depending on a language, vertical or horizontal dominance of alphabets, and a host of other factors. that affect text display and fluency in a new language.
2. Proper and prudent internationalization is the basis for effective localization. Unless you make your code and design compliant from the start for proper localization where and when it’s needed, this process will become quite messy and chaotic. Internationalization will allow your content to have discrete localizable elements from the start. The code and language will also easily adapt to different regions and requirements quickly and seamlessly. A good translation tool and expertise can help you supplement and even mitigate the internationalization effort and expense to a great extent.
3. Be aware of major platforms like iOS and Android before attempting major hotfixes. Also look for cross-platform app localization. Resource and data files that involve content, any complex set of data or graphical content outside of your code, images, tutorials, and other items that accompany a program’s executable code should be externalized for easy localization. Keep the default option open at all times, as they are not marked with any language or locale qualifiers and can help in standard use and requirement cases.
4. Good translators will always work with a context in mind, and that is precisely what gives an application an ROI advantage. It should be tested in environments that will be developed for real users. Therefore, knowledge of multiple devices, a variety of screen sizes, form factors, and issues such as line wrapping, breaks in sentences and strings, inaccuracies in actual use, untranslated texts and strings, incorrect layout, etc. It should be attended to with proper tests and expert help.
The game is no longer just about a great app, but about making it friendly enough and ready for any user who wants to tackle it.
Speak the language they speak. Get the return on investment.
