“Building a successful language translation application has numerous pitfalls and is a risky endeavor that can easily alienate users if not done correctly,” Tejas Mehta, mobile analyst for Parks Associates, told us. “Companies like Microsoft and Google are in the best position to be successful in this area because of the large ecosystem of users. Translation applications get better with use and the network effects are extremely important for these applications.”

Microsoft is using the same strategy to improve Skype’s translation service, according to the report. Currently, only a few thousand people are using its Spanish-English real-time translation services. As the service improves, Microsoft hopes to roll that service out to almost 40,000 additional users.

Several thousand others have signed up to try the service when it comes to languages such as Chinese and Russian. Meanwhile, more than 100 million people have downloaded Google's translation app to their smartphones, according to the search engine giant.

“Another important consideration that affects the performance of these applications is ‘context,’” Mehta told us. “As more and more devices become connected, these applications will be able to leverage the data from these devices to provide contextually relevant translation, which will greatly enhance the value proposition of these applications.”

From the article "Google Offering Real-Time Translation" by Jeff Cozza.

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