The effect of localisation on app sales

We have always advocated that our customers localise their apps in order to take advantage of foreign markets, but with the release of our first two iPhone apps, we had a chance to look at the sales implications directly.

Our first app, Robertsons Phrasebook free, was released on the 1st of September and was localised into English, Italian, Simplified Chinese, Polish, Spanish and Icelandic.

Our second app, Robertsons NameIt Free, was released on the 16th September, but was available only in English.

Both Apps are free to download, and available worldwide via the Apple Store. However, the number of downloads for the two apps differs wildly. The Phrasebook app outsold the Name It app by a significant margin.

Some of the difference is likely to be due to greater interest in a Phrasebook app, but we wanted to test if the lack of localisation was a factor in the lower number of downloads for our Name It app. We updated the Name It App with localisation into German, Italian, Spanish, Polish and Simplified Chinese and resubmitted it to the App Store.

The number of downloads for the Name It app tripled in the following week – a significant spike in interest. This just goes to show that when you want to boost your app sales, localisation should be the first thing to do.