乔布斯传 第699期:出版和新闻(1)

Publishing and Journalism¹

出版和新闻

With the iPod, Jobs had transformed the music business.

乔布斯用iPod改变了音乐产业。

With the iPad and its App Store, he began to transform all media, from publishing to journalism to television and movies.

而iPad及其应用程序商店的出现，开始改变所有媒介，从出版到新闻，再到电视和电影。

Books were an obvious target, since Amazon's Kindle² had shown there was an appetite for electronic books.

书籍是一个明显的目标，因为亚马逊的Kindle已经显示出人们对电子书的胃口。

So Apple created an iBooks Store, which sold electronic books the way the iTunes Store sold songs.

苹果公司也着手创建了iBook商店，像iTunes商店销售歌曲一样销售电子书。

There was, however, a slight difference in the business model.

不过，iBook商店的模式有一个细微不同。

For the iTunes Store, Jobs had insisted that all songs be sold at one inexpensive price, initially³ 99 cents.

在iTunes商店，乔布斯坚持所有歌曲都必须以低廉的价格出售，最初是99美分。

Amazon's Jeff Bezos had tried to take a similar approach with ebooks, insisting on selling them for at most $9.99.

亚马逊的杰夫·贝佐斯也曾试图在电子书销售方面采取类似的模式，将图书最髙售价限定在9.99美元。

Jobs came in and offered publishers what he had refused to offer record companies:

乔布斯进入电子书领域，向出版商提出了唱片公司得不到的条件：

They could set any price they wanted for their wares⁴ in the iBooks Store, and Apple would take 30%.

他们可以在iBook商店中任意设置图书价格，苹果则从销售中提成30%。

Initially that meant prices were higher than on Amazon.

起初，这种方式表示iBook商店里的电子书会比亚马逊的贵。

Why would people pay Apple more?

为什么人们要在苹果花更多钱来买书呢？

"That won't be the case," Jobs answered, when Walt Mossberg asked him that question at the iPad launch event. "The price will be the same."

沃尔特·莫斯伯格在iPad发布活动上向乔布斯发问，乔布斯回答道：“这不成问题，价格还是一样的。”

1 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

2 kindle   

v.点燃，着火

参考例句：

• This wood is too wet to kindle.这木柴太湿点不着。
• A small spark was enough to kindle Lily's imagination.一星光花足以点燃莉丽的全部想象力。

3 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

4 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。