苹果手机的辉煌十年

文/丹尼尔·以兰·迪尔格译/郝薇审订/钱多秀

苹果手机的辉煌十年

文/丹尼尔·以兰·迪尔格译/郝薇审订/钱多秀

十年前，史蒂夫·乔布斯在苹果2007年度大会上发表主题演讲，揭开了第一代苹果手机的神秘面纱。苹果手机不仅仅是一个新产品，还提供了一个全新的计算平台并且迅速提高了移动计算技术的复杂度。

Ten years ago, Steve Jobs unveiled the original iPhone during his keynote address at Macworld 2007. More than just a new product, the new device launched a radical new computing platform and rapidly accelerated the sophistication1sophistication 复杂，高水平。of mobile computing.

为什么苹果手机万众瞩目：iPod的继承者

[2] 乔布斯称苹果手机为“一个可触摸操作的宽屏iPod，一部革命性的移动手机，一台突破性的网络设备”。开始的时候，他暗示苹果公司打算推出三款新产品，后来才透露公司真正要推出的是一款三合一新产品，一款能够兼顾iPod媒体播放器并且具备强大联网计算功能的高端手机。

Why iPhone was a big deal: an iPod heir

[2] Jobs introduced iPhone “a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone and a breakthrough Internet device,” coyly suggesting at fi rst that Apple was set to introduce three new products. He then revealed that he was actually describing one new product: a mobile phone with the sophistication to act as both an iPod media player and as a powerful networked computing device.

[3]苹果手机的绝妙之处在于苹果公司巧妙地将其独有的多项相关技术融为一体，令其他竞争对手难以复制。

[3] The genius of the iPhone was that it irreducibly2irreducibly 不能减少地；不能简化地。combined multiple families of technology that Apple uniquely possessed, making it difficult for competitors to copy.

[4]截止到2006年底，苹果公司的iPod历经五年发展，将外壳、电池、显示屏、存储和控制器设计相关技术融为一体，在操作复杂度方面已经达到令人惊叹的高度，批量生产了数千万台，在全球范围内获得了持续盈利。

[4] By the end of 2006, Apple’s half decade of iPod development had reached an impressive level of operational sophistication involving case, battery, display, storage and controller designs combined in a package that was then mass produced by the tens of millions and sold at a sustainable3sustainable 可持续的。profit globally.

[5]除了iPod的硬件部分，苹果公司还研发出一套生态系统，于iTunes内部销售音像内容，推出了最早的一批移动软件iPod Games。包括大型媒体公司在内的其他公司基本未能开发出能与iTunes抗衡的产品。

[5] Alongside iPod hardware, Apple had also developed an ecosystem within iTunes for selling music and video content and the beginnings of mobile software with iPod Games. Other companies―including big media firms―had largely failed in their own efforts to build anything like iTunes.

为什么苹果手机一鸣惊人：继承发扬苹果操作系统

[6] 2004年，一些权威人士开始思考苹果公司是否应该放弃电脑部分业务而专攻各种iPod产品，然而有这一想法的人大多都浑然不知苹果电脑操作平台对于苹果手机（即将取代iPod）的重要意义。

Why iPhone was a big deal: a macOS heritage

[6] By 2004, some pundits4pundit 专家，权威人士。began musing5muse沉思；冥想。that the company should probably just throw away the Macintosh and focus on iPods. However, that observation was blindly ignorant of how valuable the Macintosh platform would become to the iPod’s replacement.

[7]从本质上来说，苹果手机是缩小版的超级移动苹果电脑，可以运行强大的软件，这令它集iPod和电话功能于一身，还能运行新的移动应用程序，例如苹果浏览器、邮件、日历以及新的地图客户端，该功能可以从谷歌地图载入图像，轻易实现对锁定地点的滚动、放大或缩小。

[7] Essentially, iPhone was a scaled down, ultra mobile Mac that could run powerful software, enabling it to act as an iPod, as a phone and also run new mobile applications, such as the company’s Safari browser, Mail, Calendar, and its new Maps client that loaded images from Google Maps and presented them on an effortlessly scrollable and scalable view with pinned locations.

苹果手机就是NeXT的iMac

[8]苹果收购NeXT公司，预示了NeXT的复杂软件将与苹果现有的设计、批量生产和计算硬件销售的能力相结合。最主要的是，NeXT的软件程序能够帮助苹果更好地开发和维护应用程序。

iPhone was the NeXT iMac

[8] Apple’s acquisition of NeXT envisioned6envision 展望，想象。that NeXT’s sophisticated software (which among other things made it far easier to develop and maintain apps) could be combined with Apple’s existing ability to design, mass produce and sell computing hardware.

[9] 2001年，苹果公司推出了自己的Mac OS X操作系统，并迅速发布了一系列新软件，与此同时还推出了新版iPod并开始扩建其iTunes媒体帝国。微软公司当时不仅没有生产出能够与iPod抗衡的产品，并且直到2006年Vista面世才为Windows系统推出自行研发的高级图形合成引擎。

[9] Apple introduced macOS X7苹果公司为麦金塔电脑开发的专属操作系统。Mac OS X于1998年首次推出，并从2002年起随麦金塔电脑发售。in 2001 and rapidly iterated8iterate 重复，反复申明。a series of new software releases, even as it also launched its new iPod and began building out its iTunes media empire. Microsoft not only struggled to match the iPod, but also failed to introduce its own advanced graphics compositing9composite 混合成的，综合成的。engine for Windows until Vista arrived in 2006.

[10]尽管那么多年微软一直试图跟上苹果的步伐推新，但它没想到苹果始终棋先一招，着眼于开发比自家已公开发布的产品更棒的东西。

[10] While Microsoft spent all those years trying to catch up to what Apple was delivering, it failed to predict that Apple itself was working on greaterthings that it had been announcing and releasing to the public.

[11]就在微软推出热议已久却姗姗来迟的Windows新版本Longhorn之后不久，苹果公司已经准备好推出其秘密研发的新产品，技术进步神速，是iPod外形与iMac内在的绝佳组合——苹果手机。

[11] Shortly after Microsoft belatedly10belatedly 延迟地。introduced its new version of Windows that it had been talking about in public for years (“Longhorn”), Apple prepared to release its secret work on a rapidly advanced new hybrid of the iMac in an iPod sized form-factor: iPhone.

[12] 2006年，苹果公司已清楚地证明了销售一体化产品（如苹果电脑和iPod）也能获得利润。而当苹果手机一经推出，当年内即迅速将微软Windows Mobile系统击败。

[12] By 2006, Apple had clearly proven that money could be made from selling integrated products: Macs and iPods. When it introduced iPhone, it rapidly blew Windows Mobile out of the water11blow out of the water （绝对性地）击溃对手。before the end of that same year.

[13]一个很重要的原因是苹果将电子游戏中的一些噱头搬到了苹果手机软件研究中，正是这些噱头曾让苹果电脑操作系统富有活力并受人追捧，对用户的指触做出即时反应，页面滚动时没有延迟。对比之下，当时的智能手机如诺基亚的塞班操作系统、Palm掌上电脑操作系统和黑莓操作系统成了老古董。

[13] One primary reason: Apple had applied some of the same video game tricks that had rendered macOS X animated and “lickable” in the development of iPhone software, giving it an instantaneous12instan-taneous 即刻的，瞬间的。response to fi nger touches and lag free13lag free 无延迟。performance in scrolling. This made existing smartphones look archaic in comparison, from Nokia’s Symbian to Palm OS14一个电脑操作系统，为Palm公司制造的Palm系列手持个人数字助理（PDAs）提供一个软件平台。PDA即personal digital assistant，风行于20世纪90 年代。to BlackBerry.

苹果手机让多个行业措手不及

[14]苹果公司能够实现苹果手机软硬件的传奇，与其能够将公司先进软件技术紧密融入新设备的硬件功能息息相关。以现在的标准看来第一代苹果手机速度较慢且功能有限，但即使这样，它装备的处理能力和内存也要远远优于当时的智能手机。

iPhone caught multiple industries fl atfooted

[14] Apple’s ability to pull off hard- ware and software magic with iPhone was closely related to its ability to tightly integrate its advanced software to the hardware capabilities of the new device. Despite being slow and limited by modern standards, the original iPhone packed far more processing power and RAM than existing smartphones.

[15]与此同时，苹果公司也运用一些巧妙的策略来突破硬件的局限，比如在用户按下快门之前先一步采集照片数据，这样可以使照片成像快于硬件实际处理时间。

[15] At the same time, Apple also accounted for hardware limitations through the use of clever tricks, such as capturing photo data before the user touched the shutter, resulting in the appearance of photo capture faster than the hardware was actually capable of doing.

[16]这一实用且称心的创新设计使用户感到开心的同时，也令竞争对手们惊慌失措。苹果手机推出后的三年里，其他所有智能手机平台疲于维护自己已推出的产品并且挣扎着想要追上苹果公司的发展步伐，结果却被苹果挤出了原有市场。

[16] This not only delighted users with functional, desirable novelty, but it confounded15confound 挫败；使混乱。competitors. All of the smartphone platforms that existed when iPhone was released were effectively knocked out of business16out of business 破产，失业。within the next three years as they grappled with maintaining their existing products while scrambling to catch up with what Apple had released.

[17]其他所有移动平台的大范围失败给谷歌的安卓系统提供了发展空间，这一系统旨在给第三方硬件生产商提供一个类似Windows的系统平台，从而生产出设计和功能类似苹果手机的产品。然而与计划相比，这一目标实现起来困难得多，很大程度上是因为苹果在紧密融合软硬件资源方面存在优势。

[17] The mass failure of every other mobile platform left an opening for Google’s Android, which promised to offer a Windows-like platform for third party hardware makers that would give them a product that looked and worked like an iPhone. However, that proved to be far more difficult than planned, largely because of Apple’s advantages in tight integration.

[18]除了手机生产商受到冲击，苹果手机的通用计算平台实际上还促使其他行业退出历史舞台，如傻瓜相机、GPS导航仪和独立的网络访问设备。

[18] Beyond phone makers, the general purposing computing platform of iPhone also helped virtually erase other entire industries, ranging from point and shoot cameras, to GPS navigators, to standalone accessibility devices.

苹果手机垄断高端市场

[19]凭借其专有技术，苹果设计和销售的终极高端苹果手机在全球平均售价一直在650美元左右，使用安卓系统的智能手机平均售价接近200美元，这使得多数手机生产商几乎无利可图。

iPhone monopolizes17 monopolize 独占，垄断；拥有专卖权。 the premium market

[19] Leveraging its access to advanced proprietary technology, Apple designs and sells ultra premium iPhones with an Average Selling Price consistently near $650. Commodity Android smartphones have an ASP18=average selling price平均售价。that’s now close to $200, making them barely profitable for most manufacturers.

[20]三星是唯一一家智能手机销量超过苹果的公司，但是三星所售的大部分手机定位为中低端机型，并不能让三星获取很大利润。因此，尽管三星手机销量近苹果两倍，其手机零部件也大多自行设计生产，盈利也只是苹果的一小部分。

2014年，苹果推出了最新款高端机型6 Plus，导致三星高端平板手机的销量惨淡。

[20] The only company selling more smartphones than Apple is Samsung, but the majority of the phones it sells are low or middle tier models that don’t make much money. As a result, despite selling around twice as many units, Samsung earns a fraction of the pro fi ts Apple does, even though Samsung sources much of its own components internally.

In 2014, Apple released iPhone 6 Plus as a new premium tier model, devastating19dev-astate毁灭；毁坏。the high end of Samsung’s phablet phone sales.

苹果手机的下一步是什么？

[21]在苹果手机与其竞争公司的十年销量战争后，苹果在扩大研发和收购目标方面取得了令人羡慕的优势地位，能与之直接抗衡的对手也极其有限。它的老对手微软现在是苹果iOS应用的积极合作伙伴。

What’s next for iPhone

[21] After ten years of defending itsiPhone sales from competitive threats, Apple is in the enviable position of expanding its R&D and acquisition targets while facing sharply limited direct competition. Its old platform rival Microsoft is now an enthusiastic iOS apps partner.

[22]但是，苹果公司也明显感到了来自内部的威胁。西方市场对智能手机的需求已经近乎饱和，而在一些新兴市场，低端手机有可能会瓦解大众市场对高端智能手机的需求。

[22] However, Apple clearly faces threats of its own. Demand for smartphones has largely peaked in the West, and in many other emerging markets there are low end offerings that potentially threaten to disrupt20disrupt 破坏；使瓦解。mass market demand for premium smartphones.

[23]苹果公司未来很有可能要革新手机外形设计来适应科技发展中用户的需求变化。当人们越来越青睐大屏手机时，可穿戴手机或者大量可穿戴设备可能会在未来某一天取代现在的智能手机。

[23] It could be that in the future, Apple may need to reinvent the iPhone into a new form factor to match the demands of users as technology shifts. While buyers currently appear to be trending toward phones with larger screens, it could be that wearables―or multiple wearable devices―could someday take the place of today’s smartphone.

[24]过去十年中，苹果已将手机改装为两款其他产品，先是iPod touch，然后是大一点的iPad，这种尺寸较大的iPad操作更简单，移动性也更强，能够承担许多传统电脑才能完成的任务。和手机一样，iPad也完全占据了平板电脑的高端市场，获取了大部分利润。

[24] Over the last decade, Apple has already remodeled the iPhone into two other products: first iPod touch, then a larger iPad capable of assuming many of the tasks of conventional PCs with less complication21complication 混乱；错杂。and greater mobility. Like iPhones, iPads have completely dominated the premium market for tablets and taken most of the available pro fi ts.

[25]为制造手机而研发的技术也已逐渐应用于苹果电脑，并已用于研发苹果电视和苹果手表等新产品。

[25] Technology developed for iPhone has also made its way into Apple’sMacs, and has been used to develop new products such as Apple TV and Apple Watch.

[26]就算人们对手机规格和外形的需求没有重大改变，苹果手机也会向更加复杂的方向发展，会配置新的传感器、摄像头、显示屏、越来越好的无线网络设置和以新方式进行交流、采集、生产与消费内容和信息的新型软件。 □

[26] Even without a major shift in demand for new form factors and shapes, iPhones will also continue to get more sophisticated, with new sensors, cameras, displays, incrementally22incrementally 逐渐地。better wireless networking, and new software features for communicating, capturing, creating and consuming content and information in new ways.

Ten Years of iPhone: Past, Present and Future

ByDaniel Eran Dilger

（译者单位：北京航空航天大学外国语学院）