Localization from developer's perspective
Recently I discovered very interesting short talk by Instapaper creator Marco Arment on localization from the point of view of developer and owner of popular product that can be localized (it's in the chapter 13 of the Accidental Tech Podcast, starting at minute 20:00). Thanks to Ángel Domínguez for sharing! I highly recommend to listen it to understand developers better and be more helpful in making their products really awesome on your market.
So, by all means, "localization is not a trivial thing" – except core translation, developer has to make sure that translated text fits the labels (you've probably heard about text expansion in many languages), introduce support of local date, currency formats to mention a few. Want to know more about this? Have a look at the post Translation and localization in a nutshell.
You need to have to think twice before launching localization of your product, but when done well, you'll get really substantial benefits.
Many developers ask themselves: "is badly translated app better than not translated at all"? And everyone finds his own answer to this question. Many decide that their product deserves to be so awesome in other languages as it is originally and choose localization partner (not just a vendor or the so called language service provider) who can best fit his/her localization needs.
To get product fully localized it also has to contain appropriate language support, which is not one-time task and requires commitment, understanding your audience and product from your partner.
Also things get updated quickly, so you need to have constant localization/translation support from your translation partner, who knows your product, your audience well and accordingly can do high quality job in time.
"Do a super-awesome job or not do it at all" – I also fully support this rule.
So according to Marco Arment translator, of course, has to be native speakers, do translation good (there are many discussions on translation quality, so I won't get into this more deeply). Moreover, he/she has to be good at writing interface text. This is very important aspect, as it is the core adaptation = localization. And this "makes a real difference how people perceive you and your product".
The second option is to concentrate more on the low price and choose "unknown" translation "vendor". Initially this discussion was started because of Google announcement on the recent Google I/O conference about the build-in support of Android apps localization. BTW, interesting presentation Developing for a Global Audience: Tools for Internationalization & Localization. The initial pilot involved six vendors (including Trusted Translations, Inc. and One Hour Translation). Looking forward to testing this system on Play Market from developer's account. In such case translation quality can be assessed, for example, by user ratings.
Of course, every model which has demand, has right to exist and it's developers/clients to decide what is the best for his/her product. Еverybody can find his/her niche – be it premium-class translation/localization partners or nameless bottom-chain people.
And closing point from Marco Arment: "Hope, those guys are doing great job with translation, because I can't read it".
The photo above is from my recent journey. It spotlights Chervonohorod Castle, Ukraine, built in the early 17th century. I call it "place of power" and return every year to visit it.