Location-Based Internationalization and Localization With Mobile Computing

1. Introduction

Mobile applications and web tools play an integral part in our everyday life. The mobile application development has rapidly increased in the past few years (Awwad, 2017). In order to compete in global markets, the development companies need to deploy world-ready products. If an app is going to be released or a web site is going to be hosted in various countries or regions, it should support the native language and the languages of the target market. This can be done by internationalization and localization of the application and web site/web tool (Awwad & Slany, 2016). There are many contents and information on the internet which is really helpful but due to language many people cannot access it and the information doesn’t help them at all. So, the feature of “choose language” in localization and internationalization would be fruitful. The interaction between user and software or the web content will be improved by localization and internationalization. The cultural graphical content can also help users to understand the content because user finds the application or the web content more familiar if the user interface is related to their culture or region. This will also increase the user experience. Fig.1 illustrates ‘Hello’ in different languages at different location.

The steps involved in internationalization and localization are very crucial in deploying the apps and websites to various countries of the world. Users feel more comfortable if the content talks to them in their native language and shows their cultural values. Every region has its own native language, customs and tradition as India is a land of tradition and customs so, does the other countries are. The revenue and downloads will increase if this feature is implemented but due to privacy many of the users refuse to accept the location services (Luhana et al., 2018). But if the application or website asks for the language change then the user will not get offended regarding their privacy.

The location based service (LBS) has become very common these days as if a person wants to use online food delivery application or online Cab services then he/she must enable their location to access their pickup point but, if a normal application asks for the location service then maximum user refuse to accept it. The location based service is very helpful for android devices to find the best services based on their surroundings. Location based services also helps to find the lost device and present a richer user experience (Ferreira et al., 2017).

In this paper the LBS is used to localize and internationalize the android application and websites from the original language to other languages according to the location information that the app receives from the mobile device (Ma, 2018).

Figure 1.

’Hello’ in different languages at different location (Ma, 2018)

According to data collected by Google and Admob in March 2014, many users have stopped using the application due to lack of localization in selected countries which varies between 34% - 48% including the countries (United States, China, Japan, United Kingdom, and South Korea)(Xia et al., 2013). This shows that the localization and internationalization is really needed to improve the user experience (Xu & Xu, 2017). Figure 2 illustrates the distribution of available apps in leading app stores.The data shows the changes in app download with localized and globalized services.

Figure 2.

Available apps in leading app stores (Xu & Xu, 2017)