http://www.wired.com/2016/05/microsofts-smartest-move-yet-letting-go-smartphones/
縮 http://tinyurl.com/zho3zor
The Smartest Thing a Tech Company Can Do? Don’t Make a Phone
科技業最聰明的事情：別造手機
by KLINT FINLEY
MICROSOFT’S DAYS AS a smartphone company are coming to an end.
And that’s a really smart move by Microsoft.
微軟智慧型手機的日子來到盡頭了 放棄智能手機 對微軟來說是明智的一步
Last week, the company said it would sell the mobile phone business
it acquired from Nokia in 2014 to manufacturing giant Foxconn. Now
Microsoft is laying off 1,850 as it shrinks its mobile hardware
division further.
上週 微軟宣佈出售2014年從諾基亞手中收購的手機業務 買家是製造巨頭富士
康 這幾天微軟又宣布裁員1850人 因為它需要進一步裁減手機硬體部門的規模
Microsoft will still develop the Windows 10 Mobile operating system
and hints that it will still sell phones to corporate customers. So
it’s not giving up on smartphones entirely. But it might as well be.
The company was never able to get much of a foothold in the market
—so much so that last year Microsoft took a $7.5 billion write-down
on its Nokia acquisition. (It also laid off so many people in Nokia’s
home country of Finland that the government applied for economic
assistance from the European Union.)
微軟繼續在開發Windows 10 Mobile操作系統 它還暗示會繼續向企業客戶出售
手機 微軟還沒有完全放棄智能手機 但它最終可能會完全放棄 在市場上 微軟
從來沒有佔據一定的市占 去年微軟因為收購諾基亞將資產減值75億美元 (微軟
在芬蘭解僱了一堆人 同時芬蘭也向歐盟要求經濟援助)
And yet, in giving up on smartphones, Microsoft is arguably a stronger
mobile company than ever. But instead of pouring money into making phones,
the company has figured out savvy ways to put more of its products on
other companies’ phones and mobile operating systems than ever. While
it’s obviously terrible for all the people who have been left jobless,
it turns out that at the height of the mobile era the smartest thing
most tech companies can do is not make phones.
放棄了智能手機 微軟沒有爭議還是一家強大的移動企業 比以前更強大
微軟沒有單純地投入到手機製造中而花了一堆錢 反而 它找到了許多精明的方
法將自己的產品植入到其它企業的手機 操作系統中 對於那些失業的人來說
處境的確糟糕 但是事實證明 在這個移動時代的最高峰 對於大多的科技企業
而言 最聰明的事情就是不要造手機
Fire-able Offense
Maybe the idea started in 2011 when Google acquired Motorola Mobile. Or
maybe it was earlier, when Google launched its line of Nexus-brand phones
and tablets in 2010. Or maybe it started in 2007 when Apple announced
the iPhone. After all, Apple’s strategy of controlling every layer of
the mobile experience, from the hardware to the operating system to the
app store, seemed to inspire the notion that success in the mobile
market meant building your own phone. Regardless of where it began,
many of the biggest names in the tech industry decided in recent years
that the best thing they could do was plunge into the phone-making
business.
天大的錯誤
事情也許可以回到2011年 當時Google收購了摩托羅拉 也許可以追溯到更早
的時候 比如2010年Google推出Nexus品牌手機和平板 如果進一步追溯 可以
回到2007年 當時蘋果推出了iPhone 蘋果的策略是控制移動體驗的每一層
從硬件到操作系統到應用商店 看起來企業如果要在移動市場取得成功 只有
製造屬於自己的手機 不管事情是從何時開始的 在最近幾年裡 許多大名鼎
鼎的科技企業都做出決定：它們可以做的最好事情就是進軍手機製造業
To wit: Facebook partnered with HTC in 2013 on the HTC First phone,
which featured Facebook’s custom Android interface Facebook Home.
Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia Devices the next year brought the
company’s line of Windows Phone handsets in-house. Not to be left
out, Amazon announced its Fire phone a few months later.
看看 2013年Facebook與HTC合作推出了HTC First手機 它安裝了Facebook的
定制Android界面Facebook Home 第二年微軟收購了諾基亞 目標是讓Windows
Phone手機進入到千家萬戶 幾個月後亞馬遜發布了Fire手機
Meanwhile, if you didn’t make your own phones, others thought it
stood to reason that you should at least have your own mobile operating
system. Mozilla, the makers of the popular Firefox browser, announced
the Firefox OS, and Canonical announced a mobile version of its Linux
-based operating system Ubuntu.
如果你沒有自己的手機 別人就會認為：你至少應該擁有屬於自己的移動操作
系統。火狐瀏覽器開發商Mozilla推出了Firefox OS，Canonical推出了基於Linux
的Ubuntu移動版操作系統
Needless to say, the results were rotten. Google sold Motorola to Lenovo
in early 2014. The HTC First flopped, and Facebook quietly pulled Facebook
Home from the Google Play Store. Earlier this year, Mozilla said it
would try to repurpose Firefox OS as an Internet of Things operating
system. Even Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has been quite frank about the failure
of the Fire phone.
不用說 結果糟糕透頂 2014年年初Google將摩托羅拉賣給了聯想 HTC First敗
北而歸 Facebook悄悄將Facebook Home從Google商店撤下 今年年初Mozilla宣
布將Firefox OS重新定位 瞄準物聯網 亞馬遜CEO貝佐斯也承認Fire手機是一
個失敗。
“If you think that’s a big failure, we’re working on much bigger
failures right now — and I am not kidding,” he said in an interview
with Washington Post executive editor Martin Baron last week. “Some
of them are going to make the Fire Phone look like a tiny little blip.”
“如果你認為它是一個大失敗 我們現在正在圍繞更大的失敗(按:可能的失敗)
賣力工作 我沒有開玩笑”上週貝佐斯在接受《華盛頓郵報》採訪時說 “當中
的一些產品會讓Fire手機看起來只是一件小事”
On the Phone
Yet no one would accuse Amazon or Facebook of suddenly becoming less
relevant just because their mobile phone ventures flopped. Facebook
now controls three of the most widely used mobile apps in the world
–Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and the standard Facebook app. Amazon
is still an e-commerce and e-book giant; it also powers many of the
apps used on smartphones every day through its wildly successful cloud
services.
進入手機
即使亞馬遜和Facebook在手機冒險中失敗了 也沒有人會認為它們的地位不穩固
了 在全球應用最廣泛的移動APP中 Facebook至少控制了三個 它們是Facebook
Messenger, WhatsApp和Facebook APP 亞馬遜仍然是電子商務 電子書巨頭 今天
智能手機使用的許多APP都是用亞馬遜雲計算驅動的
Today’s most successful tech companies, excepting Apple and Google,
have realized that the future lies not in controlling the underlying
mobile platform but in being on everyone’s phone, whether that phone
runs Google’s Android or Apple’s iOS. Yes, those are the two most
valuable tech companies of all, but the rivals closest behind have
discovered more value in not trying to compete directly with the top
two giants.
除了蘋果和Google 當今的許多成功科技公司都已經意識到：未來並不依賴於對
移動平台的控制 而是進入到每一個人手機中去 這些手機運行Google Android或
者蘋果iOS系統 沒錯蘋果Google是全球市值最高的科技企業 但是緊隨其後的企
業們發現：不需要與兩大巨頭直接競爭操作系統也可以找到更多的價值
Facebook, for one, ultimately saw more value in owning WhatsApp, which
was available on a mind-boggling array of different devices, than building
its own mobile platform. Microsoft hasn’t quite given up on Windows
phones, but it’s certainly headed in the same direction. When Satya
Nadella took over from longtime CEO Steve Ballmer, he ditched his
predecessor’s “devices and services” tagline and rebranded Microsoft
as a “productivity and platform company for the mobile-first and
cloud-first world.” That’s a mouthful, but it gets at an idea that
Microsoft isn’t as interested in selling gadgets as it is in selling
the tools that people use to get work done.
例如Facebook最終通過WhatsApp找到了更大的價值 WhatsApp已經進入到海量設
備中 多得難以置信 它帶來的價值比自己打造一個移動平台更大 微軟並沒有放
棄Windows手機 它跟facebook走向是一致的 鮑爾默擔任微軟CEO多年後 薩提亞
·納拉德（Satya Nadella）接下CEO職位後 他拋棄了前任提出的“設備和服務”
口號 重塑微軟品牌 現在微軟的定位是：為移動第一、雲計算第一的世界提供生
產力和平台的公司 也就說微軟對銷售設備的興趣並沒有銷售應用工具那麼大 人
們用來完成工作的工具
Under Nadella, Microsoft finally launched fully functional versions of
Microsoft Office for iOS and Android. It snapped up well-designed mobile
apps that already enjoyed cult followings on Android and the iPhone, such
as Acompli (the basis of its much-praised iOS version of Outlook), Sunrise
Calendar (now being integrated into Outlook), and the Wunderlist task
manager. And it released acquired coding tools to make it easy for
developers to create apps that run not just on Windows/a but every
platform.
在納拉德的領導下 微軟為iOS和Andorid開發了具有完全功能的Office 它搶購了
一些設計優秀的移動應用 這些在Android和iPhone上流行的應用 比如Acompli（頗
受稱讚的iOS版Outlook就是用它的技術開發的）Sunrise Calendar（現在已經整合
到Outlook ） 還有Wunderlist任務管理器 它還推出了編碼工具（也是收購來的）
讓開發者製作APP可以變得更容易
In short, Microsoft decided the best plan was not to make its own phones
but to be on everybody’s phones. Today it’s the world’s third-most
valuable company, trailing only Apple and Google parent company Alphabet.
簡單來講，微軟決定他的最佳策略不是自己製造手機 而是進入其他系統的手機中
今天 微軟仍然是世界第三大企業 市值僅次於蘋果 Alphabet
Not that tech giants aren’t getting out of hardware entirely. Google
sold Motorola but acquired Nest and still manages the Nexus line, among
other hardware initiatives. Amazon still has the Echo, its Kindle
e-readers,and its Dash buttons. Facebook has the Oculus Rift. Microsoft
has the Xbox and its Surface tablets. But these are all ancillary
products compared to the smartphone, still the hub of most people’s
digital lives.
事實上 巨頭們沒有完全退出硬體 Google雖然放棄了摩托羅拉 但它收購了Nest
仍然管理著Nexus產品線 還有其它硬體項目 亞馬遜擁有Echo, Kindle, Dash按鈕
Facebook有Oculus Rift 微軟有Xbox和Surface 但是和智慧型手機相比 這些只是
輔助產品 目前智慧型手機依然是人們數字生活的中樞
In the meantime, makers of the latest generation of popular apps show
little interest in hardware. There’s not much talk of Snapchat phones,
Pinterest headsets, or Tinder watches. They’re not trying to create
their own mobile operating systems to load with self-interested bloatware.
Instead, they’re just making apps that people just can’t resist using,
regardless of what type of phone or watch or tablet they happen to own.
與此同時 最新流行的APP對硬體興趣不大 我們沒有聽說Snapchat手機 Pinterest
頭盔或Tinder手錶的消息 它們不會嘗試打造自己的操作系統 安裝自己的軟體
相反它們只是開發用戶無法拒絕的APP 不管你的手機是什麼 手錶是什麼 平板
是什麼
This new generation of companies, in other words, realizes the smartphone
wars are over. The winners are clear. Microsoft knows it, too. Now it’s
showing it understands where the real promise lies by deciding to move on.
換句話說 新一代企業知道智能手機戰爭已經結束 輸贏已經很明顯 這一點微軟
自己也知道 當微軟決定前進時 它已理解到希望在哪裡