To date, the technologies industry is growing faster than it has ever done in previous years. Think about phones. While the landline version took 137 years to reach 1.14 billion users, the mobile phone took only 30 years to reach more than 6 billion users, and not too out of topic, Facebook only needed 8 years to reach 1 billion users.
With all this in view, tech industries are also rapidly tapping into foreign markets, searching for a wider consumer base. But, with every big company which is thinking of going global with their products and services, they have to think, and act local. Take for example, Nokia and their range of mobile phones named ‘Lumia’. Despite having spent excessive time to look for the perfect name that would appeal globally, some native Spanish speakers kindly pointed out that in the not-too-distant past, ‘Lumia’ was a local slang for ‘prostitute’. And what about Scandinavian brand Electrolux, which (at one point) tried to sell their range of vacuum cleaners with a tagline that literally translated in English to ‘Nothing Sucks Like an Electrolux’? Even for the once-a-hit-in-Japan video game ‘Zero Wing’ which was translated to English from the original Japanese to appeal to the US market, phrases in the game’s conversations that went like “all your base are belong to us” only made the stuff of jokes, not sales.
As technical translations for technology can be rather complex, leading tech companies are dependent on professional technology translation services to reach out and appeal to the diverse populations of the world. With a trusted and knowledgeable translation services provider, these companies are able to overcome the cross-multicultural barriers and compete in global markets. They know the importance of being able to rely on a translation company that has the expertise and skills when dealing with the complicated translations for the technology sector, ranging from the simplest of product information to the translation of softwares and apps for foreign mobile devices.
So, if you are in the tech industry and are thinking of ‘going global’, consider these important factors that may determine your success or failure when competing with other brands in the worldwide arena:
– Use the expertise of linguists who are native speakers of the target language with a proven history of performing technology translations or is exposed to the works in their local tech industry.
– Stick to the same translation services company you know and trust to do the translation works for your products/company, as benefits both sides in terms of cost and consistency. This also enables a unified ‘localisation’ process – everyone involved becomes familiarised and automatically aligns to your business rules and all the steps and processes involved in current and future translation works or projects.
With these points considered, gain some peace of mind knowing that your tech translation would be accurate and free from cultural and linguistic errors.
