Hi William - sorry if my last post came across that way. It was not that way intended.
You make a fair point, but I do think the rating is unreasonable. Let's take a look at that analogy again: Right now, I'm sitting in Thailand and I can access hundreds of free ebooks on Amazon.com. The vast majority are written in English and with just a couple of clicks I can download them to my Kindle (if I had one). Let's say I do that. Now, suppose I don't speak English (let's pretend I'm Thai). Do you think it's reasonable for me then to go and post a 1-star review because it's not in my language? Also, who does it benefit for me to do so? These are genuine questions, not personal attacks! Let's suppose I decide to unpublish my app from all non-english speaking countries to prevent such negative feedback. How many support emails would I get from people complaining why they cannot find my app? Maybe this would increase the incentive for piracy? Also what about all the english-speaking people living in non-english speaking countries? The key point here is that country and language are not synonymous. 2011/2/24 William Ferguson <[email protected]> > Hey Mark, settle. > I did mention in my post that it is unfortunate that the market does > not filter by language. > > I think you need to be realistic about which countries you target with > your app. > If a country has a reasonable percentage of the population speaking > one of the your languages for which your app has resources then > publish it there. > Eg 56% of Germans speak English, so its a good target for an ENglish > app. see > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population > > To take your book analogy, your wouldn't publish an English version of > your book in Sri Lanka or Ethiopa because it would be cost prohibitive > with little or no return. > Well in the Android market you don't have distribution costs, but you > do have a brand cost. Too many one stars and your brand suffers. > > Its your call if you publish there, but it opens you up to negative > but not positive sentiment. > Ie no upside, only downside, as you have seen from that comment and > the one star. > > > On Feb 24, 12:04 pm, Mark Carter <[email protected]> wrote: > > It's not really a fault of the app, it's a fault of the marketplace which > > should allow filtering by language. Also, what about multi-lingual > countries > > like India and Malaysia? Are you saying you should not make your app > > available there until you support ALL of their languages? > > > > If every dev geographically restricted availability of their apps based > on > > localization, then many countries would only see a few hundred or > thousand > > apps. > > > > If you look on the Amazon website, if someone wrote a comment on a > foreign > > language book like "1-star, not in my language" what would you think and > > what benefit would it be to anyone? > > > > 2011/2/24 William Ferguson <[email protected]> > > > > > Well, IMO the user has a point. > > > > > If the app is available in Japan (via market) it would be reasonable > > > to expect that there is a Japanese translation. Imagine how pissed you > > > would be to be inundated with thousands of apps in German/French/ > > > Swahili etc. > > > > > You have the option of restricting in which countries your app is > > > visible. Remove it from the Japanese market (and where ever else is > > > pertinent). > > > > > It is unfortunate that market only allows filtering on a country/ > > > carrier basis. > > > It would be reasonable to be able to filter based on a users selected > > > locale. Then you could distribute your English/French app world-wide > > > but only to those users with either English/French set as their > > > language of choice. > > > > > But since we don't have that then it would seem prudent/reasonable to > > > restrict your app to mainly English speaking countries. > > > > > William > > > > > On Feb 23, 2:40 pm, Mark Carter <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Here's a good one for a little utility tool I wrote: > > > > > > 1star: "英語だし訳わからん。" > > > > > > which Google Translate translates to: > > > > > > "However I do not know English translation." > > > > > > That's right, one star because the app (which is free and has no ads) > > > does > > > > not have Japanese localisation! > > > > > > Also, it's the app's first and only comment. Luckily it's only > visible to > > > > Japanese users. > > > > > -- > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups > > > "Android Discuss" group. > > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > > [email protected]. > > > For more options, visit this group at > > >http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en. > > > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Android Discuss" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. 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