The pros and cons of localization when submitting an iPhone app

I was just wondering about the pros and cons of submitting metadata and changing the UI buttons for people who don't speak English.

According to this study there isn't a huge 开发者_StackOverflow中文版percentage of users who go to stores that aren't in English (all the smaller countries have stores in UK English).

That said, I was wondering if maybe there is some advantage to this? For example, if I submit to the French store I would assume there are less apps with metadata in French and so therefore you might have a better chance of getting featured.

Keep in mind my app is super simple with no network activity and only a couple of buttons I would need to translate.

PS please forgive me if this is not an appropriate question for this site. And feel free to vote to migrate.

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There is no disadvantage of providing localised versions of your application. It's probably more a question of knowing your target audience.

Generally one should assume that in a country, which official language is not English, people don't speak English. Of course there are exceptions like Germany were a lot of people do speak English. But usually they still feel more comfortable using their native language. Following your example, French traditionally have a very strong opinion when it comes to languages and will appreciate a French localisation.

Besides users by country you should also take into account the area or business segment you're targeting. Just to give an example: an British pub guide obviously is targeting English speaking people. If you're creating something around renewable energy it could be worth exploring a German version besides an international English one, too since it's really popular in Germany and also supported by government subsidies.

If you can reach your potential users in English a localisation might not be necessary. But the lack of localisations will make it definitely harder to advertise your application. I can't think of an non-localised app have been featured on the German App Store. This might be just bad memory but Apple points out the importance of localisations many times in the documentation.

Since you mentioned your application doesn't actually have that many localisable elements it might be worth the effort anyway. Even if you decide not to do so for the initial release it's worth building your application with future localisation in mind to add localisations in later updates. See that post for more.

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There is a disadvantage, and it is that once you add a language, you will be expected to continue supporting it in future releases. It's not nice for someone who uses your app in say Chinese to install an update and find that the app has reverted to English or that some new features are not translated. But in order to continue supporting a language in future releases, you'll have to get new/changed content translated which will cost you (assuming you are paying a translator) and delay your release a little. You'll also have a bigger testing burden.

That said, localization is a great way to attract more users.