经济学人读译Five out of ten 得分不及格.doc

2012.09.15 Five out of ten 得分不及格 复制链接Apples new smartphone苹果的新智能手机Five out of ten得分不及格The iPhone 5 is hardly a great leap forwardiphone 5 未实现质的飞跃Sep 15th 2012 | SAN FRANCISCO | from the print edition The smartest phone in the room?iphone5，发布会上最智能的手机？SOME hilarious videos doing the rounds on the internet show people pretending to take photos with invisible iPhones and hold conversations on them. These spoofs are meant to poke fun at Apple and its legion of fans. But the very notion that the firm could produce a see-through phone also highlights how closely its brand has become associated with revolutionary innovations. What a pity, then, that the iPhone 5, which was unveiled on September 12th, fails to live up to that hard-won reputation.网上有一段“隐形iphone”的恶搞视频十分流行，在该视频里人们煞有介事地用手掌拍照片打电话。这些滑稽模仿都是在拿苹果公司和果粉开涮。但苹果公司有能力生产透明手机的这一观念也突出了苹果就是“革命性创新”的代名词。但遗憾的是，9月12日发布的iphone 5 却辜负了它来之不易的美誉。The device is thinner than its predecessors, has a bigger screen and boasts connectivity to superfast 4G wireless networks. But it now competes against impressive offerings from the likes of South Koreas Samsung and other rivals, who are constantly churning out snazzier superthin handsets of their own with stunning displays. They are unlikely to lose much sleep because of the incremental changes made to the iPhone 5.比前几代iphone相比，Iphone 5 更薄，屏幕也更大，并支持4G极速无线网络。但现在，韩国三星等公司也能生产出同样出色的产品，这意味着苹果公司的iphone 5 所面临的竞争巨大。这些公司不断推出一系列显示效果极佳的更炫超薄手机。所以对于Iphone5的渐进式改进，他们并不怎么感到焦虑。This is a high-stakes game for Apple, whose phone business still accounts for more than half of its revenues. These are not about to plummet: hordes of folk still want to get their hands on smartphones. IHS, a research firm, reckons that next year global shipments of smartphones will exceed those of non-smart ones for the first time. But the iPhone is facing much stiffer competition from handsets using Googles popular Android operating system. According to IDC, another research firm, Androids share of smartphone sales rose from 24% in 2010 to 66% in the first half of this year; Apples grew by four percentage points, to 20%, over the same period.这是一场高风险的博弈。因为手机业务仍为苹果公司收入打下了大半壁江山。虽然手机销量不会骤减，因为很多人仍想入手智能机。调研公司IHS表示，明年全球智能机出货量将首次超过非智能机。但谷歌安卓系统的手机也广受喜爱，可以说，iphone所面临的是一个强手如云的市场。另一家调研公司IDC表示，从2010年到今年上半年，智能手机销量中安卓手机份额从24%上升到了66%。而在此期间，苹果只上涨了4个百分点，达到20%。The company still has an important advantage over its rivals in the form of its huge “ecosystem” of digital apps, 700,000 of which are now available in its online store, and cloud-based services such as iTunes, which is getting a revamp. And that advantage will be reinforced by the firms new mobile operating system, iOS 6, which will power the iPhone 5 and a smaller iPad tablet computer Apple is expected to launch later this year. The system includes a new digital-mapping app developed by Apple and a feature that allows users to store things such as digitised aircraft boarding passes and movie tickets. These and other offerings can be combined to make mobile commerce more seamless. “The ability to tie digital stuff into the real world is becoming much more important for users,” says Ian Fogg, an analyst at IHS.不可否认，比起竞争对手，苹果公司仍具有很大优势，比如其网上商店拥有70万数字应用的生态系统，还有正在升级的iTunes等云服务。此外，苹果公司还将发布新的移动操作系统iOS 6来支持今年晚些时候发售的iphone 5 和 Mini Pad. 这会使苹果的优势更为突出。iOS 6 中包括苹果新开发的数字地图应用和储存数字登机牌和电影票等的应用。所有的新应用可以更加无缝地整合到移动商务中。HIS分析师Ian Frogg表示，“对用户来说，把数字化融入到现实生活的能力正变得越来越为重要。”Indeed it is. But other firms such as Amazon, which is rumoured to have a smartphone in the works, and Google are busy beefing up their ecosystems of software and hardware too. So Apple will have to work harder to stay ahead of the pack or risk seeing some of its pr