I have very recently launched a German version of my main app. It helps to work with a German speaker. Though I have tens of competitors in English, I only have two in German. Both are paid and more limited feature sets. I will report back on my experience next year.
I have very recently launched a German version of my main app. It helps to work with a German speaker. Though I have tens of competitors in English, I only have two in German. Both are paid and more limited feature sets. I will report back on my experience next year.
I am against translations because I don't think they add anything to the success. It is just wasted time to do it.
And I say it as a very hardcore ex defender and demander of translating software. I translated many PC games in my spare time years ago, because publishers told me, the market is not big enough for them to make it.
Now I know what they meant.
Although it can depend on the language, but in my opinion europe is not really significant in the most cases and even if it can generate as many sales as the US, there are too many languages and in my experience translations don't increase sales.
A translation is always nice for the users. It always depends on the app of course. I think games usually don't need a translation but other apps might worth it. As a native German evil Kraut I can tell you that a translation makes an app more natural and handy. But you can also keep in mind that we usually speak English very well at least the guys who use an iPhone.
we've two games on the appstore right now, both available in english and german and our sales show that most of the sales go to english speaking countries followed by germany,... then there's long nothing, and finally some random sales from other countries. The key to sold units is definitely the translated ITC description, but luring your customers in won't make them happy! (note: i know that the available language is stated at the side / end of the app store profile, but i don't think that most people read this, other opinions?).
In the end, it depends on your app. I wouldn't say in general that games don't need a translation. Image a larger rpg with story, stats, ... If you don't understand it, you're screwed! On the other hand, if your app is about restaurant deals for nyc, i guess you won't need a german translation. Analyse your target audience and decided based on numbers.
We are looking into translating our games to reach more customers, but i don't think that this is an easy task. A bad translation won't do you anything good. Sometimes you're facing space limitations (remember, german text tends to be longer), or devices / environment specific language, which a cheap translation service won't know. Most online services charge per word and won't give you the option to include notes or descriptions.
This leads me to a follow-up question. How do you translate your apps? (Not talking about your native language + english :P)
as the other said: not every App needs a translation. if there are only a few word, which are also similar or the same in the other language most user will understand.
Then there are app that are very difficult to use if the user does not speak the language. Many germans speak English, but many will shy away form using an english only app. Can't generalize this, del fee to pm me and I could give you are more detailed suggestion.
I use iCanlocalize. They translate every string I throw at them, app strings, description and extra stuff. I still rely on my beta testers (who speak the language) to provide me feedback on the quality of the translation, so I capture the odd oddities. There aren't many though.
Since I'm a native spanish speaker, I have placed Spanish along English on my games and I see a good number of sales from Spain and also often from some Latin countries, so I'm sure it helps.
IMO, Spanish and French are translations you should aim first, not sure about German but surely it does not hurt.
Hey Xaron, would you be interested on a translation exchange ?, I would like to have German in a game, I can translate yours to Spanish
I think what I'm going to do is translate the description + keywords + name only. My guess is that the app's target audience speaks english anyway, but thanks to the local description, it will stand out.
I wonder though - how do you guys deal with foreign keywords? A description any translator can do, but keywords are a bit harder, no?
I would use Google translate, then run it by someone who speaks the language your trying to translate into to make sure it's all correct and fluent.
Did you ever try that approach? Someone once gave me a google translated text (into English, from Polish), and said: "Hey, can you just polish it?". I declined - it would've been easier to me to start from scratch and translate everything myself.
Perhaps in case of anglo-saxon languages this might work, but I wouldn't use this approach to translate any other group of languages...
Deciding whether a localization is worth it or not, isn't something any one can tell you. From the feedback I've received from our clients, none have not made their localization costs back.
German is definitely a good language to trial localization with. App Store sales are healthy there and people are prepared to pay for apps. Take things slow, assess returns, move on to new languages.
In reply to the comment about Google Translate, never ever do this. Google translate is an insult to all users of an app and you'd literally be disrespecting your users. I have unfortunately had clients that translated their app with us and then used Google Translate to do a last few words. Those last few words stood out like a sore thumb and they received a great many support requests. Not fun. I'm not just saying this to sell Applingua's services, you can use a competitor if you want, but in my experience Google Translate is not your answer.
I think translations should be focused on Asian countries at the moment, especially Chinese, the market there is set to explode, but then again like most I don't think it is a necessity but a little extra that may sway some purchases. English is the most spoken language in the world, many believe that Spanish will overtake that soon, so it may be worth keeping in mind
I think translations should be focused on Asian countries at the moment, especially Chinese, the market there is set to explode, but then again like most I don't think it is a necessity but a little extra that may sway some purchases. English is the most spoken language in the world, many believe that Spanish will overtake that soon, so it may be worth keeping in mind
Nope, most spoken language on the world is Chinese!
Never use Google Translate for your localisations. You'll end up with Spanglish or worse Try for a native speaker, especially helpful when you need the phrase to come in under a certain number of characters eg for labels. It's amazing how many non-English words it can take to say a simple English phrase
My German translation hasn't done much for my app at all but it's just one example and wouldn't stop me from trying again.
Maybe we should open up a translation trading board. I am german and would trade a German translation for your App for a - lets say - danish for my app!
Maybe we should open up a translation trading board. I am german and would trade a German translation for your App for a - lets say - danish for my app!
As someone mentioned above, Google translation Text is horrible. Tried it this week with a friend of mine for a spanish translation of my App. He preferred to Start from scratch.
For Translations into German, as a native German I can assure, its the Same Bad quality.
I sure like Apps that are localized well to German. But unfortunately many just do a lousy Google Translate job. And that is the worst you can do. To switch to english to understand the app, one has to switch system languages...
So, use a professional service or at least some native speaking friend. And decide whether its necessary at all. Games? Not so much. But can't hurt when done well.
Deciding whether a localization is worth it or not, isn't something any one can tell you. From the feedback I've received from our clients, none have not made their localization costs back.
German is definitely a good language to trial localization with. App Store sales are healthy there and people are prepared to pay for apps. Take things slow, assess returns, move on to new languages.
In reply to the comment about Google Translate, never ever do this. Google translate is an insult to all users of an app and you'd literally be disrespecting your users. I have unfortunately had clients that translated their app with us and then used Google Translate to do a last few words. Those last few words stood out like a sore thumb and they received a great many support requests. Not fun. I'm not just saying this to sell Applingua's services, you can use a competitor if you want, but in my experience Google Translate is not your answer.
Hi, I'm currently developing my first app which is a word game. I'll be utilizing word lists such as ENABLE, and perhaps some others to give me a more comprehensive word list.
I'm launching in English but do hope to localize to German, Spanish, & French, and perhaps one or two of the Asian languages such as Mandarin & Urdi in the not so distant future.
I see that translation services are priced per word. If I'm using word lists in the game like ENABLE which has approximately 200,000 words is there a more cost effective route in translating it?
Or am I taking the wrong approach to translating? Should I only be translating my own content, and look for a public domain German lexicon etc?
It depends on how many sales you make, versus how much text there is in the app (as costs are per-word)
2 months ago recently translated my top-selling app (around 75000 downloads to date over a year) into French, Spanish and Chinese. Costs were around £350 per language for in-app text, iTunes text and a two page support webpage.
So far it really hasn't been worth it, with a barely measurable increase in those territories. Maybe over the next year or two it will pay off, but it will be a pain every time I update the app, to have to keep translating strings.
(By the way "Linguan" is a good Mac app to help with this process for iOS apps, although it doesn't yet handle the strings in Settings. It is cheap too.)
It may be different if you launch your app with multilingual support, but when you add languages I don't think you get another bite of the "New app" cherry on the local App Stores, so your app may simply pass unnoticed.
Chinese in particular has been a waste of time, which was a surprise to me. Despite the installed userbase size, it appears they simply aren't prepared culturally to pay for apps at present (I had a good few downloads, but only one sale there in the first month!)
I have done Chinese, Russian and German translations of my app and I've concluded that it's probably not worth doing. Germany had the most downloads, followed by Russia with China far far behind.
Don't forget that translating the app is only the start (and perhaps the easy part) while the real problem is doing effective market research, keyword selection and marketing. That is certainly where I see that my Chinese app has failed.
German translation - is it worth it?
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