A locale is a region distinguished by language, culture, or business practice. A locale need not be in another country; it can be a region characterized by a language, such as the French-speaking part of Switzerland, or a region characterized by different business practices, such as a province or state that has a different tax structure.
A localized application is an application you have customized for a specific locale.
From the standpoint of an efficient development process, a localized application builds upon or extends an internationalized application. Working with a base internationalized application that you complete with locale-specific modules allows you to keep the benefits of centrally maintainable code while retaining flexibility to address each locale's cultural, linguistic, and business needs.
This book refers to localized applications as language editions, since the type of localization it focuses on is language based. However, localizing an application, or creating a language edition, involves much more than translating the user interface. In addition to the text components of any user interface, a localized application ensures the proper presentation and processing of data that a particular locale requires.
A successfully localized application should appear to the users as though it were developed locally. It is often a challenge that requires considerable research and access to native consultants who have experience in the geographic region and business sector your application is targeting.
