经济学人253:微软和个人电脑业

　　Microsoft and the PC industry
微软和个人电脑业
Defenestrated
被抛弃
Steve Ballmer is a casualty of the personal computer’s rapid decline
史蒂夫鲍尔默是个人电脑迅速衰败的罪魁祸首
Aug 31st 2013 |From the print edition
UNTIL August 23rd few people would have described Steve Ballmer as “retiring”. Microsoft’s chief executive has played both tiger and Tigger: snarling¹ (toothlessly, as it turned out) at Apple’s gadgets²; and bouncing, with a whoop³, onto conference stages to extol⁴ his company’s wares⁵. But retiring he is, within a year.
在8月23日之前很少人会想到史蒂夫鲍尔默会退休。微软的首席执行官即使老虎也是跳跳虎，与苹果的产品叫板，但是结果却没什么威胁，在发布会上吹嘘其产品。但是他将会在一年之内退休。
Mr Ballmer’s departure is a surprise. He had announced a reorganisation of the company only in July and had hoped to oversee⁶ much of the change. Some celebrated⁷ his going: Microsoft’s share price went up by 7.3% on the day the news broke. Mr Ballmer has plenty of critics, although Microsoft’s revenues have trebled on his 13-year watch, to $77.8 billion in the year to June, and profits have grown similarly, to $21.9 billion. The critics point at the rise of Apple and Google, and say Microsoft should have done better—or handed some of its $77 billion of cash to shareholders⁸. In an interview with the Seattle Times, Mr Ballmer denied that pressure from ValueAct, a fund with a small stake in the firm, helped push him out.
鲍尔默的离职是一个意外。就在七月他还宣布了公司的重组，希望能看到改变。一些人为他的离开叫好，微软的股价在鲍尔默退休消息传出的一天内上涨了7.3%。尽管微软的营收在鲍尔默的13年掌舵期间翻了三倍，达到了219亿美元，但是他还是饱受批评。批评者瞄向苹果和谷歌的崛起，表示微软应该比现在做的更好，或者将其770亿现金部分返给股东。在一次来自西雅图时报的采访中，鲍尔默否认了其迫于拥有微软小部分股份的基金ValueAct而离开的说法。
Microsoft sits atop a pyramid of companies that prospered⁹ from the long boom in personal computers (PCs). The vast majority of PCs run on Microsoft’s Windows operating system and are powered by Intel’s processors. They bear the brands of Dell, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Lenovo and others, and nowadays are mostly made by Taiwanese contractors¹⁰. The trouble is that people increasingly prefer to buy mobile devices, made by Apple or running Google’s Android operating system. Sales of PCs have been falling at double-digit rates. From the pyramid’s apex¹¹ to its base, companies are desperate both to refresh the PC and reduce their reliance on it. Few are having much success.
微软坐在受益于个人电脑长期繁荣的公司金字塔顶端。大部分的个人电脑跑的是微软的视窗操作系统，用的是英特尔的处理器。它们支撑着戴尔，惠普，联想和其他品牌，大部分是有台湾代工厂完成的。现在的麻烦是人们越来越多的倾向于苹果生产或者运行谷歌安卓操作系统的移动设备。个人电脑销量以两位数的速率在下降。金字塔上的公司个个都昂着更新个人电脑，减少它们对个人电脑业务的依赖。几乎没有一家取得成功。
Frank Gillett of Forrester, a research firm, reckons that Windows’ share of the market for personal devices, once 95% or more, has dropped to around 30%. Microsoft responded belatedly with Windows 8, a new edition intended for touchscreen PCs and tablets launched last October, with variations for cheaper tablets and phones. Applications lie behind oblong tiles designed for fingertips rather than icons¹² for mouse-clicks. Microsoft’s successful Xbox entertainment system was given the same look. The idea was that this uniform style would help to transfer Microsoft’s dominance of the desktop¹³ to mobile devices, and refresh the PC too.
调查公司Forrester的Frank Gillett认为微软一度站个人设备市场95%以上的视窗系统现在所占份额跌到了大概30%。微软随后的回应是适用于触屏个人电脑和平板电脑的视窗8系统，发布于去年十月，同时拥有廉价平板和电话的版本。应用以矩形磁贴展示在桌面，为了使用手指触控而不是鼠标点击。微软成功的Xbox娱乐系统也使用同样的外观。微软的想法是这种风格上的统一会帮助微软从桌面霸主转变成移动设备霸主，同时也更新个人电脑。
It has not happened yet. Few businesses were likely to hurry to buy Windows 8 anyway; some have yet to switch to its predecessor¹⁴, Windows 7. Consumers have not taken to tiles on PC screens: a new version, Windows 8.1, due in October, will make it easier for them to stick with the old look. Only now is a wide choice of touch PCs and tablet-PC hybrids¹⁵ appearing.
然而这个愿景还没有实现。很少的企业急着想购买视窗8系统，有些甚至都没有使用前代的视窗7系统。消费者也没有习惯笔记本屏幕上的磁贴，将于10月发布的最新版本的视窗8.1会让消费者更简单的回到传统桌面。现在有很多混合型平板电脑机型出现在市面上。
Microsoft’s own tablet, the Surface, has been a flop¹⁶, forcing it to make a $900m write-off in its latest results. Windows phones, mostly made by Nokia of Finland, are far behind iPhones and Android devices, with just 3.3% of the world market according to Gartner, another research firm. They have ousted¹⁷ BlackBerry from third place, but that is not saying much.
微软自家的平板Surface是一款失败的产品，到现在只销售了9亿美元。另一家调查公司Gartner表示，使用微软操作系统的手机，主要由芬兰的诺基亚生产，销量远远落后于iPhone和安卓设备，只占到手机世界市场的3.3%。它们已经取代了黑莓第三的位置，但是也说明不了什么。
Next to Microsoft at the apex, Intel has also done poorly in smartphones and tablets, though it is striving to catch up and in June unveiled a new chip that it hopes will bring new zip to PCs. Among the PC-makers, HP pondered quitting altogether in 2011, then sacked the chief executive who suggested it. Meg Whitman, his successor, chose to stay in, as well as pushing into services and software and shedding 27,000 jobs. She has plenty still to do: HP’s latest results, on August 21st, sent a share-price rally into reverse. At Dell, which is scrapping¹⁸ for much the same ground, Michael Dell, the founder¹⁹ and chief executive, still hopes to win a battle to take the company private. Of the leading PC-makers, Lenovo has coped best. Its home market, China, is slowing but growing, and it is selling plenty of smartphones.
跟微软地位相同的英特尔在智能手机和平板市场表现也不佳，尽管其在努力追赶，并于6月发布了一款新的处理器，希望给个人电脑注入新的力量。在所有的个人电脑生产商中，惠普在2011年曾考虑退出，然后解雇了提出这个想法的首席执行官。继任者Meg Whitman选择继续留在个人电脑市场，进军服务和软件行业，并减少了27000个职位。她仍然有很多事要做：惠普8月21日最新的财报显示股价重新下跌。戴尔的境遇也非常相似，创始人兼首席执行官迈克尔戴尔仍然希望让公司私营化。在所有的个人电脑制造巨头中，联想的表现是最好的。在本土市场中国，联想在缓慢增长，同时也销售相当部分的智能手机。
Despite its slow start in mobile, Microsoft remains²⁰ hugely profitable. “It’s easy to get focused only on Windows,” says David Cearley of Gartner. The firm was quicker than its rivals to provide cloud services to big companies. Although Google’s free word-processor and spreadsheet threaten its Office software, Microsoft still has most of its customers, to whom it can sell improved services online. The direction Mr Ballmer has set “makes a lot of sense”, Mr Cearley says. Had he set out sooner, he might have seen the journey through.
尽管在移动市场开始较慢，但是微软仍然有很大利润。Gartner的David Cearley表示，专注于视窗操作系统很容易。微软在给大公司提供云端服务上比其他对手快了不少。尽管谷歌免费的文本处理软件和表格处理软件对微软的Office构成了威胁，但是微软仍然拥有大部分顾客，微软向其销售改进的在线服务。Cearley说鲍尔默规划的方向起了很大的作用。尽管他就要离开，但是他可能看透了前景。

1 snarling   

v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的现在分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说

参考例句：

• "I didn't marry you," he said, in a snarling tone. “我没有娶你，"他咆哮着说。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• So he got into the shoes snarling. 于是，汤姆一边大喊大叫，一边穿上了那双鞋。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险

2 gadgets   

n.小机械，小器具（ gadget的名词复数 ）

参考例句：

• Certainly. The idea is not to have a house full of gadgets. 当然。设想是房屋不再充满小配件。 来自超越目标英语 第4册
• This meant more gadgets and more experiments. 这意味着要设计出更多的装置，做更多的实验。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史

3 whoop   

n.大叫，呐喊，喘息声；v.叫喊，喘息

参考例句：

• He gave a whoop of joy when he saw his new bicycle.他看到自己的新自行车时，高兴得叫了起来。
• Everybody is planning to whoop it up this weekend.大家都打算在这个周末好好欢闹一番。

4 extol   

v.赞美，颂扬

参考例句：

• We of the younger generation extol the wisdom of the great leader and educator.我们年轻一代崇拜那位伟大的引路人和教育家的智慧。
• Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever. 我要天天称颂你，也要永永远远赞美你的名。

5 wares   

n. 货物, 商品

参考例句：

• They sold their wares at half-price. 他们的货品是半价出售的。
• The peddler was crying up his wares. 小贩极力夸耀自己的货物。

6 oversee   

vt.监督，管理

参考例句：

• Soldiers oversee the food handouts.士兵们看管着救济食品。
• Use a surveyor or architect to oversee and inspect the different stages of the work.请一位房产检视员或建筑师来监督并检查不同阶段的工作。

7 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

8 shareholders   

n.股东( shareholder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The meeting was attended by 90% of shareholders. 90%的股东出席了会议。
• the company's fiduciary duty to its shareholders 公司对股东负有的受托责任

9 prospered   

成功，兴旺( prosper的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The organization certainly prospered under his stewardship. 不可否认，这个组织在他的管理下兴旺了起来。
• Mr. Black prospered from his wise investments. 布莱克先生由于巧妙的投资赚了不少钱。

10 contractors   

n.（建筑、监造中的）承包人( contractor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We got estimates from three different contractors before accepting the lowest. 我们得到3个承包商的报价后，接受了最低的报价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Contractors winning construction jobs had to kick back 2 per cent of the contract price to the mafia. 赢得建筑工作的承包商得抽出合同价格的百分之二的回扣给黑手党。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 apex   

n.顶点，最高点

参考例句：

• He reached the apex of power in the early 1930s.他在三十年代初达到了权力的顶峰。
• His election to the presidency was the apex of his career.当选总统是他一生事业的顶峰。

12 icons   

n.偶像( icon的名词复数 )；（计算机屏幕上表示命令、程序的）符号，图像

参考例句：

• Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons. 用图标来区分重要的文本项。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Daemonic icons should only be employed persistently if they provide continuous, useful status information. 只有会连续地提供有用状态信息的情况下，后台应用程序才应该一直使用图标。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

13 desktop   

n.桌面管理系统程序；台式

参考例句：

• My computer is a desktop computer of excellent quality.我的计算机是品质卓越的台式计算机。
• Do you know which one is better,a laptop or a desktop?你知道哪一种更好，笔记本还是台式机？

14 predecessor   

n.前辈，前任

参考例句：

• It will share the fate of its predecessor.它将遭受与前者同样的命运。
• The new ambassador is more mature than his predecessor.新大使比他的前任更成熟一些。

15 hybrids   

n.杂交生成的生物体( hybrid的名词复数 )；杂交植物（或动物）；杂种；（不同事物的）混合物

参考例句：

• All these brightly coloured hybrids are so lovely in the garden. 花园里所有这些色彩鲜艳的杂交花真美丽。 来自辞典例句
• The notion that interspecific hybrids are rare is ill-founded. 有一种看法认为种间杂种是罕见的，这种看法是无根据的。 来自辞典例句

16 flop   

n.失败(者)，扑通一声；vi.笨重地行动，沉重地落下

参考例句：

• The fish gave a flop and landed back in the water.鱼扑通一声又跳回水里。
• The marketing campaign was a flop.The product didn't sell.市场宣传彻底失败，产品卖不出去。

17 ousted   

驱逐( oust的过去式和过去分词 )； 革职； 罢黜； 剥夺

参考例句：

• He was ousted as chairman. 他的主席职务被革除了。
• He may be ousted by a military takeover. 他可能在一场军事接管中被赶下台。

18 scrapping   

刮，切除坯体余泥

参考例句：

• He was always scrapping at school. 他在学校总打架。
• These two dogs are always scrapping. 这两条狗总是打架。

19 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

20 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。