5 ms·

Just curious, what is the reasoning behind such rollouts? Localization?

by TheCoreh 9y ago

Mtinie 9y ago
Presumably licensing and legal coverage.
ChristianGeek 9y ago
Yes...translating to Australian is a slow and tedious process.
- mamp 9y ago
  Hopefully this can be expedited by translating from the New Zealand version which is released. Just lower the prior probability of sheep and you're done!
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
kiliankoe 9y ago
I really hope not. I'm not saying localization isn't important, but holding back an English app because of this is something I don't understand. A huge part of the world speaks English just fine. Release first, localize later if it's not possible right away. This is probably not the case here, but I hate it when devs forget that the US isn't the entire world that they're releasing their app to.
- kalleboo 9y ago
  Heck it could even be a great teaching aid for English!
- eriknstr 9y ago
  Also some of us don't even like to have the software localized. English is not my mother tongue and it's not an official language where I live either but I always set the system language to American English on my computers and devices.
  - kiliankoe 9y ago
    Same here, I couldn't care less about a German translation. I'm not going to see it if it's not the only language the app comes with. I do however prefer a German locale as in number, time, units, etc.
  - Sharlin 9y ago
    Localization != translation. Especially when it's a machine vision app that's supposed to be useful locally.
    - eriknstr 9y ago
      You are right. Internationalization might be the word for what I'm talking about, though some might argue that that's not correct either because they might say that l10n is a subset of i18n. Not quite sure. But anyways, yes, l10n in the sense that it works in my part of the world is desirable. I18n if only taken to mean translation (and things like right-to-left and such which arise from supporting certain languages) is what doesn't matter to me.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- hokkos 9y ago
  Because if you don't release an localized app you receive bad ratings that people never update.
  - kiliankoe 9y ago
    Not a bad point, I hadn't thought about that, but you do still have the option of flushing all reviews with an update if they're primarily negative.
    - Sharlin 9y ago
      Also flushing people's memories? Seriously, marketing and PR is a human problem, stop treating it as an engineering one.
- Sharlin 9y ago
  It's not about just language, of course. Otherwise "localization" would be called "translation". But a machine vision AI app isn't very useful if it cannot recognize local signs, brands, whatever, or pronounce them correctly. It would be simply bad publicity.
  - kiliankoe 9y ago
    You're absolutely right, I dismissed this far too early and didn't think far enough for an app like this. Thanks for clearing that up.
    - Angostura 9y ago
      I think that must be the case - it isn't available in the UK :)
jonny_eh 9y ago
Devs often limit regions to slowly ramp up usage, so the servers don't melt down on day one, see Pokemon Go for example.
JimDabell 9y ago
It's unlikely to be localisation, because you'd expect to see it in the UK store as well. Some companies only release iOS applications in certain countries to begin with because they want a gradual rollout rather than doing a global launch all at once. The App Store doesn't give you many options in this respect.

Just curious, what is the reasoning behind such rollouts? Localization?

Mtinie 9y ago

Presumably licensing and legal coverage.

ChristianGeek 9y ago

Yes...translating to Australian is a slow and tedious process.

mamp 9y ago
Hopefully this can be expedited by translating from the New Zealand version which is released. Just lower the prior probability of sheep and you're done!
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

kiliankoe 9y ago

I really hope not. I'm not saying localization isn't important, but holding back an English app because of this is something I don't understand. A huge part of the world speaks English just fine. Release first, localize later if it's not possible right away. This is probably not the case here, but I hate it when devs forget that the US isn't the entire world that they're releasing their app to.

kalleboo 9y ago
Heck it could even be a great teaching aid for English!
eriknstr 9y ago
Also some of us don't even like to have the software localized. English is not my mother tongue and it's not an official language where I live either but I always set the system language to American English on my computers and devices.
- kiliankoe 9y ago
  Same here, I couldn't care less about a German translation. I'm not going to see it if it's not the only language the app comes with. I do however prefer a German locale as in number, time, units, etc.
- Sharlin 9y ago
  Localization != translation. Especially when it's a machine vision app that's supposed to be useful locally.
  - eriknstr 9y ago
    You are right. Internationalization might be the word for what I'm talking about, though some might argue that that's not correct either because they might say that l10n is a subset of i18n. Not quite sure. But anyways, yes, l10n in the sense that it works in my part of the world is desirable. I18n if only taken to mean translation (and things like right-to-left and such which arise from supporting certain languages) is what doesn't matter to me.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
hokkos 9y ago
Because if you don't release an localized app you receive bad ratings that people never update.
- kiliankoe 9y ago
  Not a bad point, I hadn't thought about that, but you do still have the option of flushing all reviews with an update if they're primarily negative.
  - Sharlin 9y ago
    Also flushing people's memories? Seriously, marketing and PR is a human problem, stop treating it as an engineering one.
Sharlin 9y ago
It's not about just language, of course. Otherwise "localization" would be called "translation". But a machine vision AI app isn't very useful if it cannot recognize local signs, brands, whatever, or pronounce them correctly. It would be simply bad publicity.
- kiliankoe 9y ago
  You're absolutely right, I dismissed this far too early and didn't think far enough for an app like this. Thanks for clearing that up.
  - Angostura 9y ago
    I think that must be the case - it isn't available in the UK :)

jonny_eh 9y ago

Devs often limit regions to slowly ramp up usage, so the servers don't melt down on day one, see Pokemon Go for example.

JimDabell 9y ago

It's unlikely to be localisation, because you'd expect to see it in the UK store as well. Some companies only release iOS applications in certain countries to begin with because they want a gradual rollout rather than doing a global launch all at once. The App Store doesn't give you many options in this respect.