Katakana: Think Different

I decided to check out Apple's website to see how a large, multinational corporation handles localizing its product pages. As it would happen, not much is different. For one, Apple chooses not to localize the names of many of its products and features. Just take a look at the page titled Built-in Apps:

Many of the apps are not translated at all, even to Katakana, and instead retain their English names. Some apps like Maps and Mail, however, do get transliterations to Mappu(マップ) and Meeru(メール). I would suspect this discrepancy can be attributed to the fact that programs like FaceTime, Pages and GarageBand are specific names, whereas Mail and Maps are more generic terms that refer more literally to what the app does. I believe that Apple is trying to emphasize the uniqueness of apps with English names by making them stand out more.

Moving on to the page called "Performance" we see similar trends. Apple does not translate its special terms such as "MacBook" and "Retina," but does translate more generic terms.

This section is describing the science and engineering that went into making the MacBook. The words GPU, Retina, DNA, and MacBook Pro are all still written in English while terms such as disupurei moderu(ディスプレイモデル), which is always written after MacBook Pro, and Dyuarukoa to kuaddokoapurosessa(デュアルコアとクアッドコアプロセッサ), which refers to the dual and quad core processors found in the laptops, are written in Katakana. These terms refer more generically to the technology the MacBook contains, and as such are translated. In fact, technology(テクノロジー) is yet another term that is written in Katakana as seen in the phrase パワフルGPUテクノロジー(powerful GPU technology).

From all of this I would conclude that a general rule of thumb for how companies handle localizing their product pages is that specific product names are generally not translated, while terms used to describe them, particularly technical or scientific terms are written in Katakana, and the rest is written in Kanji and Hiragana.