The most popular languages
The most popular translation languages for mobile apps are French, Spanish, German, Japanese and Italian. We hardly have any projects that doesn’t include at least one of them.
Simplified or Traditional Chinese?
When translating to Chinese, we’re asked which Chinese variant to choose. There are about 1/2 billion people speaking both Traditional and Simplified Chinese, so it’s a tough call, but the numbers speak for themselves.
A quarter of all our projects include Simplified Chinese, while only 8% include Traditional Chinese. I guess that this settles it.
European or Brazilian Portuguese?
Again, our clients vote with their feet. 17% for Brazilian Portuguese and only 3.4% for European Portuguese. This probably has something to do with the fact that Brazil has a population of over 160 million.
Other Points
Almost all of our iPhone localization jobs also include the iTunes description. This is very important, in order to get more sales with these translations. Thanks for listening to us nagging you about it!
About 2/3 of the projects include both translation and review.
Getting a second independent translator to proofread the localized application is a great way for improving the quality of the translation from good to great. It also provides the assurance that what you’re releasing is actually ready for release.
Shameless Pitch
If you’re reading this and thinking about localizing your iPhone or Android application too, look no further.
Create a free account at ICanLocalize and start your software localization project.
ICanLocalize (http://www.