The question that you might be asking yourself is why is software localisation so important? The formidable technical development that has been experienced in the area of personal computers since the 1980’s together with the aim of mainly American software engineering companies at the beginning of the 1990’s to market their products in non-English speaking countries, have played an important role in the growth of today’s software localisation market worldwide (Schmitz, 2005:1).
From being the work of a few software development companies, software localisation has become a "multi-billion dollar professional industry" of enormous importance for companies that want to sell their products in international markets. The importance stems from the fact that computer users prefer to work with software in their native language, which can be translated into an increase of sales opportunities in the target countries (Esselink, 2000:1-2).
Many facts indicate that the software localisation industry has a promising future:
"According to the findings in the ABI study 'Language Translation, Localisation and Globalisation: World Market Forecasts, Industry Drivers and eSolutions' by the end of 2007 the worldwide human translation market will account for $11.5 billion [...]. The software and web localisation markets will respectively account for $3.4 billion and $3.1 billion by 2007." (Media Release, Allied Business Intelligence Inc.:2002).