Why not use local language!

Besides locally assembled personal computers (PCs), there are a lot of ready built PCs entering the Indonesian market. Hewlett Packard, Compaq and Acer to mention but a few. All these brands appear almost everyday in print advertisements, side by side with local brands. It is advantageous because consumers will have more choices and prices could be lower because of tighter competition among these world class computer manufacturers.

My office purchases computers of different brands. Every time I see the user's guide inside the computer box, be it Hewlett Packard, Compaq or Acer, I don't remember seeing any Bahasa Indonesia user's guide accompanying the computer. Everything is in English, the computer user's guide, printer user's guide, and monitor user's guide, and mostly printed in Singapore where their regional headquarters are located. This is a pathetic fact. It seems that these manufacturers don't care about localizing their products. They are not aware that by translating or having their manuals translated into the local language, higher sales may be obtained.

Localization is the process of creating or adapting a product to a specific locale, i.e. to the language, cultural context, conventions and market requirements of a specific target market.

In Indonesia, I can only see a few companies applying localization for their product. Nokia is one of the companies applies localization to its product to gain better sales. I think this is one of the reasons why Nokia leads the mobile phone market in Indonesia.

All Nokia's manuals are in local languages, according to their locale. For example, in Indonesia, they are in Bahasa Indonesia, in China in Chinese, etc. Not only manuals, but also software used in the phones provides the following languages: Bahasa Indonesia, Malaysian, Vietnamese and Thai for the Southeast Asia region. For other regions, Nokia provides languages according to their locale. So if we buy a Nokia mobile phone in other regions, for example, in Europe, we will not see Bahasa Indonesia or other languages in Southeast Asia, but instead, will see major languages used in Europe such as Danish, Swedish, Dutch, Russian and French.

I don't see any reason why computer manufacturers should delay localizing their products in Indonesia. Consumers tend to buy products that are more familiar to them, products that use their language, products that are localized. Beside giving better service to their customers, better sales may be obtained.

ADRIANUS HIYUNG TJUNG

Jakarta