Machine Translation System vs. Human Translator

The main target groups of machine translation have always been companies because they need translation resources more urgently than personal users at home. That's why, even today, the fact that most effective translation systems are very expensive and only affordable for companies and not for single users is obvious. It always takes a few years’ time until a software gets cheaper, because then new developments are rising and new technologies are born. For example Google's free translation tool can be used by everyone but we have to keep in mind, the poor translations this service generates are the results of an old version (dated 1998) of the famous Systran software. Current Systran applications cost about 300$ depending on the language package. Translations generated by today’s Systran applications are well-known for being very close to original meanings and exemplary grammar. A lot of human translators feel in danger of losing their jobs. However, at the moment machine translation systems are not likely to replace humans but they are thought to speed up the human translator's work and to make the translation process more effective.