Disqus
All major app stores operate in multiple countries, supporting different languages. However, it’s up to a developer to decide which languages are supported by their applications.
In its latest report, Distimo looks at the localization of applications by languages, offering insights about the most popular languages in August 2012, the distribution of languages per country, and the impact of adding the native language to the supported languages of an app. This report focuses on the Apple App Store for iPhone and iPad and covers 12 largest markets: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, China, Brazil and Australia.
- Unsurprisingly, English is the most important language in terms of free downloads and revenue. More than 90% of the free downloads and revenue generated by applications in the Apple App Store in the top 200 for iPhone and iPad in the 12 largest countries support English.
- Proportion of free downloads and revenue globally generated by all non-English languages has grown over the past few months. The introduction of the native language to an app boosts its download volumes and revenue, though this effect is larger for iPhone than for iPad apps.
- China is the only country where English does not dominate the top 200 most free downloaded applications in the month of August. In this country, 79% of all free downloads in the top 200 are gathered by applications that support the Chinese language. This percentage of apps that support English in China is 69%.
- The largest share of total revenue is gained by native language applications in Asia (Japan, China and South Korea), while apps with English content gain the most revenue in the other countries.
- Apart from the Apple App Store in the English-speaking countries, the Apple App Store for iPhone and iPad in China, Japan and South Korea have the highest proportions of free downloads and revenue generated by native language-only apps in terms of free download and revenue.
The conclusion is – publishing an app in a native language(s) appears to have more impact on downloads than it does on revenues on the iPhone. The impact is most significant in China, Japan and South Korea, indicating that consumers in these countries are more eager to pay for applications that support their native language.
You can download the whole report from here.
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
