Apple Makes New Language Localization Options Available to App Store Developers

Thursday December 10, 2009 11:14 am PST by Eric Slivka

Apple today announced that it has rolled out support for six new languages and their corresponding localized App Stores for developers using iTunes Connect to submit their iPhone applications.

With over 50 million users of iPhone and iPod touch in 81 countries around the world, it's more important than ever to make your app available in a user's language of choice. You can, and should, create localized versions of your app for each market you sell to. In iTunes Connect, you can customize your app's metadata, keywords and screenshots for each localized version.

The newly-supported languages include:

- Brazilian Portuguese: Brazil App Store
- Korean: Korea App Store
- Portuguese: Portugal App Store
- Russian: Russia App Store
- Simplified Chinese: China App Store
- Swedish: Sweden App Store

A lack of localization for applications and their instructions have been cited among the many challenges faced by the App Store in China.

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Yvan256

Posted: 32 months ago

And don't forget that sometimes a country has more than one official language, such as Canada.

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iphones4evry1

Posted: 32 months ago

It's going to be interesting to see how this slows down the App approval process. "After a highly publicized dispute, Steve Jobs had to review the App himself and he said 'huh??? what??? it's not even in english!'"

I have a feeling this is going to open up a lot of loopholes and backdoors for foreign developers.

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MacFly123

Posted: 32 months ago

Who does the translation? Do the developers have to get that done? So what does the localization service provide exactly? Sounds like a lot of work!

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miketcool

Posted: 32 months ago

What's so wrong with filtering search results by language? If you're a chinese business person living in New York, would have to go to the localized app store to find a chinese language app?

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irmongoose

Posted: 32 months ago

I think you're all a bit confused about this piece of news. Localization is nothing new. There are already plenty of localized apps in the store.
What's new is that Apple is adding support for these six new languages in addition to the ones already supported.

Therefore, overall impact on the store and relevant procedures is, at best, minimal.

irmongoose

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2992

Posted: 32 months ago

how about if I'm not in the US but I want to use English?!

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Eric5h5

Posted: 32 months ago

I have a feeling this is going to open up a lot of loopholes and backdoors for foreign developers.

Why? There were already a bunch of languages and have been for a long time.

Who does the translation?

A person who knows the language. (Or Google...but that's not a good idea. ;) )

Do the developers have to get that done?

Yes.

So what does the localization service provide exactly?

What service? There are more languages available now than there were before, that's all.

Sounds like a lot of work!

Kind of, yes.

how about if I'm not in the US but I want to use English?!

Change the store to the U.S. store. In some cases it's enough to have your language settings on English. (e.g., just setting the store to Japan won't get you Japanese text for app descriptions--if available--you have to set your computer to Japanese as well.)

--Eric

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