[2008.06.14] Follow the leader 苹果公司，领袖导航

Apple
苹果公司

Follow the leader
领袖导航

Jun 12th 2008 | SAN FRANCISCO
From The Economist print edition

Apple ditches its unusual business model to boost handset sales
苹果公司为推进其手机销量，摒弃原有独特运营模式

ALMOST a year after launching what he thinks is the phone to change all phones, Steve Jobs, the boss of Apple, took to the stage again this week to introduce its second version, the iPhone 3G. In the past year Mr Jobs, who had surgery for pancreatic cancer in 2004, has visibly aged. Looking emaciated, he farmed out large parts of his speech, which is usually a big marketing and media event, to other presenters. But he still held the crowd in thrall as ever.
一年前曾自认引领手机革新浪潮的苹果公司老板—史蒂夫•乔布斯,本周再次走上前台隆重推出旗下二代手机—iPhone 3G. 自2004年接受胰腺癌手术后,乔布斯日渐衰老,显见疲态. 身为媒体宠儿的乔布斯,其发布演讲常是倍受媒体关注的营销盛宴;但虚弱憔悴的他此次却将演讲重任交由他人捉刀,不过其个人魅力依旧征服众人,牢牢索住视线焦点.

The new iPhone mostly addresses the shortcomings of the old one. It has GPS satellite-positioning technology that will allow a new and exciting category of services, such as location tracking, that depend upon the phone knowing where it is. It works with fast third-generation (3G) mobile networks, not just slower 2G ones. And it panders to corporate customers with features such as better integration with their systems and “remote wiping” of data if a handset goes missing.
全新iPhone大幅完善上一代苹果手机的功能配置. GPS卫星定位技术使它具有多种新奇服务功能,比如根据手机信号定位的方位跟踪服务. 这项服务依托于第三代移动网络系统 (3G),而不局限于速度较慢的第二代移动网络系统. 除此之外,其自身的众多特性都对公司消费者诱惑十足,诸如:其与公司系统更好的兼容性;手机遗失时其自身的远程数据清除功能.

Perhaps above all, it is a lot cheaper, starting at $199, just below what the industry sees as the pain threshold for the mass market. What Mr Jobs did not say was that the reduction comes largely from a change in Apple’s relations with mobile operators, such as AT&T in America. Operators will subsidise the new handsets to make this low price possible, but will also increase monthly usage fees-and will no longer pass a share of those fees to Apple.
也许,最为重要的是其199美元的超低起价,这个价格已经低于业界对大众市场心理价格关口. 价格的削减主要源于苹果公司扭转了同一众移动网络运营商之间的关系,诸如美国的AT&T公司,但乔布斯先生对此并未说明. 各大运营商将通过补贴政策来支持这款手机的超低价位,但他们同时也将提升每月的服务费—并不再与苹果公司进行服务费利润分成.

This brings Apple in line with the business model used by other handset-makers, such as Nokia and Samsung. Getting operators to agree to Apple’s novel revenue-sharing scheme seems to have hindered sales. Evidently Mr Jobs hopes to gain more from faster handset sales than he will lose by giving up his share of usage fees. By cutting the iPhone’s price and increasing the number of countries where it is legally available from six to 70, Mr Jobs hopes to reach his goal of selling 10m iPhones by the end of the year. (So far, 6m have been sold.)
苹果公司如此作为完全符合其他手机制造商的运营模式,诸如诺基亚和三星. 苹果公司与运营商达成的利润分成新方案似乎会削减销售收入. 不过显而易见的是,乔布斯先生打好了”失之桑榆,收之东隅”的算盘:希望通过手机销售量的快速增长来弥补因放弃服务费而遭受的损失. 乔布斯先生凭借削减价格和放开经营权限(合法经销国的数量已从6个扩大到70个)的手段, 寄希望于今年年底时iPhone的销售量能够达到一千万部.（目前为止，已经售出六百万部iPhone手机.）

Competitors quickly tried to douse another conflagration of iPhone hype. “I see this as a catch-up release for Apple,” says Andrew Lees, head of mobile businesses at Microsoft, an arch-rival which provides software to many handset-makers. “We outsell them by two to one.” He points out, legitimately, that many phones using Microsoft Mobile software have long had both GPS and 3G, and have always tied into corporate computer systems.
很快,众多竞争者就要赶赴到iPhone 媒体宣传的如荼攻势之中,来给这里降温去火. 向手机制造商提供软件服务的微软是苹果公司的主要竞争对手,其移动手机业务主管李斯就表示:”我将iPhone的发布看作是苹果公司追赶潮流之举.”他说:”我们的软件销售量可是苹果的两倍.”他还指出，很多使用微软软件的手机早已具备GPS和3G功能， 并一直同公司客户的电脑系统保持联系.

Finland’s Nokia sells the most “smartphones”, capturing 45% of the world market in the first three months of this year, and Canada’s Research In Motion (RIM), the maker of the famous BlackBerry, is second, with 13%. Even in America, where Nokia is weak, RIM leads, with 42%, followed by Apple with 20%.
今年头三个月里,芬兰诺基亚公司出品的” 智能电话”销量最大,占市场份额的45%,加拿大RIM公司位居销量次席,约占市场份额的13%,这家公司就是知名手机—黑莓的生产商. 甚至在诺基亚公司处于劣势的美国市场,RIM公司也以42%的份额稳坐市场老大的交椅,紧随其后的是拥有20%份额的苹果公司.

But Apple’s impact on the industry has been greater than its market share suggests. The iPhone has set new standards in design and ease of use. A telling statistic from Mr Jobs is that 98% of users browse the web on their iPhones, 94% use it for e-mail, and 80% use ten or more features-including, of course, the built-in iPod music-player. As Mr Jobs joked, many users of other smartphones, with their clunky menus, cannot even find ten features.
但是,市场份额的数据远不足以显示苹果公司在业界的影响力. iPhone的面世重新定义了手机的设计理念和便捷操作. 乔布斯先生给出了一个具有说服力的统计数据:iPhone的用户中,98%通过该手机浏览网页,94%用其收发邮件,80%的用户享受了超过十项以上的特色服务—这其中当然包括了手机内置的iPod 音乐播放器. 正如乔布斯先生戏言称,其它智能手机的一众用户,在其手机笨拙繁复的菜单指引下,甚至连十个特色功能都无从找寻.

This points to the ultimate role of the iPhone for Mr Jobs, Apple and the industry. There were personal computers before 1984, but it took the Macintosh, which Apple launched that year, to popularise the icon-based graphical interface that others copied, kicking off the PC era. There were digital music-players before 2001, but Apple’s iPod made them both ubiquitous and user-friendly. In the same way, says Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies, an analyst who has followed Apple throughout its history, the iPhone, with its elegant touch-screen interface, seems likely to be the gadget that sets the direction that others will follow in the era of mobility.
对于乔布斯先生,苹果公司以及整个行业来说,上述问题恰恰说明了iPhone的灵魂所在. 早在1984年前,个人电脑就已诞生,但是当年苹果公司推出的麦金托什机(Macintosh),因图标绘画界面而风靡一时,被其他公司争相效仿,这一机型的面世开创了个人电脑的新纪元. 2001年,在数字音乐播放器早已投放市场,屡见不鲜之后,苹果公司凭借iPod让音乐播放器成为潮流所指,其操作便捷的特性深受全球消费者热烈追捧. 同样秉承历史,沿袭一贯思路,创意策略咨询公司分析师提姆•巴扎林认为:拥有精美操控触摸屏的iPhone,似乎很可能成为引领移动通讯时代的潮流风向标.

To bring that about, Apple is now turning the iPhone into a hand-held computer and allowing other firms to write software to run on it. Other handset-makers are doing the same, but the iPhone’s operating system and programming tools, on display this week, are better than theirs. There is no doubt that Mr Jobs is trying to lead a third revolution in consumer technology in his lifetime.
为使这一预言成为现实,苹果公司正致力与将iPhone转变成为为掌上电脑，并允许其他公司编写运行软件应用于其上. 其它各大手机制造商也正致力与此,但是在本周的展示活动中可见,iPhone的运行操控系统和程序设计工具仍然令众人望其项背,无人能及. 无庸质疑,乔布斯先生的毕生经历都将致力与引领消费科技变革的第三次浪潮.

译者：margaret_von    http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=12237&extra=page%3D1