Google has launched a new language translation app for the iPhone, enabling it to compete with its Android version.
Both allow users to translate speech in 15 languages and words and phrases into more than 50 languages, as well as listening to translations spoken aloud in 23 languages.
According to Mashable, the iPhone app enables better text readability through a new zoom function, while the Android offers SMS translation and an enhanced conversation mode.
Tom Hulme, a design director at IDEO who helped create and launch the CelebAround iPhone application, explains the process and planning that went into the app.
This is a great post, because it considers the process as a whole: from researching the app market to pricing models and Apple’s role in the proceedings.
I can’t help thinking that Apple will have to open up and that the store is going to be used more and more as free distribution. In the future relatively few app’s will be paid for, and those that are will often use the emerging subscription model so that they can offer trials for free (lowering the barrier to adoption). Media and gaming companies are already using apps as wrappers for their existing content and offering additional features – they will give away apps and then monetise the content subsequently. Apps are likely to be portals in the future.