logo image
  • News
    • People Moves
    • Deal Wins
    • Demand Drivers
    • M&A and Funding
    • Financial Results
    • Technology
    • Academia
    • Industry News
    • Features
    • Machine Translation
    • — Divider —
    • Slator Pro
    • — Divider —
    • Press Releases
    • Sponsored Content
  • Data & Research
    • Research Reports & Pro Guides
    • Language Industry Investor Map
    • Real-Time Charts of Listed LSPs
    • Language Service Provider Index
  • Podcasts & Videos
  • Events
    • Design Thinking – February 2021
    • — Divider —
    • SlatorCon Coverage
    • Other Events
  • Directory
  • RFP Center
  • Jobs
MENU
  • News
    • People Moves
    • Deal Wins
    • Demand Drivers
    • M&A and Funding
    • Financial Results
    • Technology
    • Academia
    • Industry News
    • Features
    • Machine Translation
    • — Divider —
    • Slator Pro
    • — Divider —
    • Press Releases
    • Sponsored Content
  • Data & Research
    • Research Reports & Pro Guides
    • Language Industry Investor Map
    • Real-Time Charts of Listed LSPs
    • Language Service Provider Index
  • Podcasts & Videos
  • Events
    • Design Thinking – February 2021
    • — Divider —
    • SlatorCon Coverage
    • Other Events
  • Directory
  • RFP Center
  • Jobs

Advertise on Slator! Download the 2021 Online Media Kit Now

  • Slator Market Intelligence
  • Slator Advertising Services
  • Slator Advisory
  • Login
Search
Generic filters
Exact matches only
Advertisement
Now We Know Why Apple Stepped Up Machine Translation Research

7 months ago

June 23, 2020

Now We Know Why Apple Stepped Up Machine Translation Research

Machine Translation ·

by Marion Marking

On June 23, 2020

7 months ago
Machine Translation ·

by Marion Marking

On June 23, 2020

Now We Know Why Apple Stepped Up Machine Translation Research

The new Apple iPhone operating system, iOS 14, will come with a Translate app; so revealed the tech giant on June 22, 2020 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2020). iOS 14 will feature several updates to Siri, such as enabling it to send audio messages, help with offline translations, and support for new language pairs. Basically, Siri will enable iPhone users to have “entire conversations [that are] natural and easy, and have the ability to stay private” via offline mode.

Slator has been covering developments in machine translation for quite some time and reports on MT out of Cupertino have increased in recent years, adding to the scads of research undertaken by behemoths Google and Amazon.

It was last fall when leaked documents suggested that Apple had stepped up research into MT. More recently, two Apple researchers — one of them a Siri Machine Translation R&D Scientist — went on a quest toward overcoming speech translation, which builds on previous work in MT and automatic speech recognition (ASR).

Advertisement

The iPhone Translate app is a natural competitor to Google’s and the host of standalone translation gadgets out in the market today, especially since Apple’s Translate app has the ability to work completely offline. This could potentially address latency issues, the one perennial complaint surrounding standalone translation devices (i.e., the lag between voice input and audio output, especially when online).

Slator Design Thinking February 2021 | $ 675

Slator Design Thinking February 2021 | $ 675

Design Thinking is a 3-session, live interactive workshop that will transform the way your team works to overcome the problems they face and develop highly innovative solutions.

Register Now

As shown in the Apple demo, turning the iPhone to landscape mode opens up a side-by-side view of the conversation, making it easier to follow. Using a single microphone, the Translate app detects the spoken language and shows the translation on the “correct side of the screen using advanced on-device machine learning and the powerful neural engine.”

iPhone users will be able to translate text and voice between any combination of 11 languages (English, Mandarin Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Portuguese, Russian); which will likely grow with future releases of the app.

Slator 2020 Language Industry Market Report

Data and Research, Slator reports
55 pages. Total market size, biz dev and sales insights, TMS & MT review, buyer segment analysis, M&A, Covid impact & outlook.
$480 BUY NOW

With this latest announcement, one of the last big tech players has now joined the long list of deep-pocketed companies putting resources into developing proprietary machine translation technology. It remains to be seen whether the Translate app will remain a priority, or become just another one of those undeletable iPhone apps languishing somewhere in an Apple folder.

TAGS

Apple TranslateGoogle Translatemachine translationSiriWWDC
SHARE
Marion Marking

By Marion Marking

Slator consultant and corporate communications professional who enjoys exploring Asian cities.

Advertisement

SUBSCRIBE TO THE SLATOR WEEKLY

Language Industry Intelligence
In Your Inbox. Every Friday

SUBSCRIBE

SlatorSweepSlatorPro
ResearchRFP CENTER

PUBLISH

PRESS RELEASEDIRECTORY LISTING
JOB ADEVENT LISTING

Bespoke advisory including speaking, briefings and M&A

SLATOR ADVISORY
Advertisement

Featured Reports

See all
Slator 2020 Language Industry M&A and Funding Report

Slator 2020 Language Industry M&A and Funding Report

by Slator

Slator 2021 Data-for-AI Market Report

Slator 2021 Data-for-AI Market Report

by Slator

Slator 2020 Medtech Translation and Localization Report

Slator 2020 Medtech Translation and Localization Report

by Slator

Pro Guide: Sales and Marketing for Language Service Providers

Pro Guide: Sales and Marketing for Language Service Providers

by Slator

Press Releases

See all
Seamless Transitions and the Latest AI-Powered Technologies – Tilde’s Success Story

Seamless Transitions and the Latest AI-Powered Technologies – Tilde’s Success Story

by XTRF

Live Stream Smartling’s Global Ready Conference on April 14, 2021

Live Stream Smartling’s Global Ready Conference on April 14, 2021

by Smartling

Rheinschrift Language Services – Strategic Improvements and Workforce Expansion in 2021

Rheinschrift Language Services – Strategic Improvements and Workforce Expansion in 2021

by Rheinschrift Language Services

Upcoming Events

See All
  1. Memsource MT Post-Editing Pricing Models Webinar

    Pricing Models for MT Post-Editing Workshop

    by Memsource

    · February 3

    Hear a panel of innovative localization professionals share different approaches for MT post-editing pricing.

    More info FREE

Featured Companies

See all
Text United

Text United

Memsource

Memsource

Wordbank

Wordbank

Protranslating

Protranslating

Seprotec

Seprotec

Versacom

Versacom

SDL

SDL

Smartling

Smartling

Lingotek

Lingotek

XTM International

XTM International

Smartcat

Smartcat

Translators without Borders

Translators without Borders

STAR Group

STAR Group

memoQ Translation Technologies

memoQ Translation Technologies

Advertisement

Popular articles

Why Netflix Shut Down Its Translation Portal Hermes

Why Netflix Shut Down Its Translation Portal Hermes

by Esther Bond

The Slator 2020 Language Service Provider Index

The Slator 2020 Language Service Provider Index

by Slator

Top Language Industry Quotes of 2020

Top Language Industry Quotes of 2020

by Monica Jamieson

SlatorPod: The Weekly Language Industry Podcast

connect with us

footer logo

Slator makes business sense of the language services and technology market.

Our Company

  • Support
  • About us
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy

Subscribe to the Slator Weekly

Language Industry Intelligence
In Your Inbox. Every Friday

© 2021 Slator. All rights reserved.

Sign up to the Slator Weekly

Join over 13,000 subscribers and get the latest language industry intelligence every Friday

Your information will never be shared with third parties. No Spam.