经济学人99:智能手机在尼日利亚 黑莓女孩

 　　Business Smartphones in Nigeria BlackBerry babes

　　商业 智能手机在尼日利亚 黑莓女孩

　　Its devices are still popular there, but Africa won't save RIM¹

　　黑莓手机在这里依然畅销，但非洲不会拯救RIM

　　"DO YOU know how many times you have embarrassed me because you have refused to buy me a BlackBerry?"

　　在一个脏兮兮的停车场，凯莎猛的捶打着男友的胸膛，大声尖叫，"你知道么？

　　Keisha screams in a dusty car park, jabbing her boyfriend's chest.

　　就因为你不愿给我买黑莓手机,我老是被人看不起。

　　Daniel says he can't afford it until next month. It is the final straw for Keisha.

　　丹尼尔说下个月他就能把钱凑够。这也是凯莎最后一根救命稻草了。

　　This is a scene from "BlackBerry Babes", a Nigerian film about women wooing men into buying them such a smartphone.

　　这是尼日利亚电影"黑莓女孩"中的一个场景，内容讲的是女人让男人给她们买一个类似的智能手机。

　　The plot may be absurd, but its sense of fashion is spot on.

　　情节看上去很荒唐，却真实反映了当地流行的风尚。

　　RIM, the maker² of the device, may get clobbered³ elsewhere in the world (its market share in America has dropped to 1.6%), but in Nigeria BlackBerrys are still hot.

　　手机厂商RIM在世界其他地方（其美国市场份额跌至1.6%）的市场可能日渐衰落，但在尼日利亚，黑莓手机依然很畅销。

　　The country's obsession⁴ with BlackBerrys is part of a wider trend: although the market share of smartphones is still small, they are becoming more popular all over Africa.

　　尼日利亚的"黑莓手机热"反映出更广范围内的一大趋势：尽管智能手机在非洲的市场份额依旧很小，但它们在变得越来越炙手可热。

　　They allow those unable to afford computers to browse⁵ the internet for a few dollars a month.

　　对于那些没能力购买计算机上网的人来说，使用智能手机就能解决这一问题，而每月所需花费不过几美元而已。

　　Thumb-tapping phone users generate 67% of online searches in Nigeria.

　　在尼日利亚触屏手机用户产生67%的在线搜索流量。

　　More than 4m of its citizens own a smartphone, about 4% of mobile subscribers.

　　有400多万市民拥有智能手机，占全部移动用户的4%。

　　If half of these use a BlackBerry, it is because RIM has managed to attract the younger set, says Nicholas Jotischky, an analyst⁶ at Informa, a market researcher.

　　一个市场研究员，Informa的分析师Nicholas Jotischky说，由于RIM将客户群定位于年轻群体，所以有半数的用户使用黑莓手机。

　　Users particularly fancy the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service, which allows them to send texts for nothing.

　　用户特别喜欢黑莓手机的短信（BBM）功能，这可以让他们免费发送消息 (通过数据方式-如GPRS发送，不是SMS)

　　"I have a BlackBerry to talk to friends—and boys. If you have a BlackBerry people see you in a certain light," says Diana Ogwuegbu, a student in Lagos, who has hundreds of BBM friends. Savvy⁷ businesses use BBM to market their products.

　　Diana Ogwuegbu是一名来自拉各斯的学生，她拥有众多BBM朋友，表示，"我用黑莓手机跟朋友聊天—包括男友，拥有黑莓手机会让朋友对我刮目相看，"一些精明的企业用BBM推广产品。

　　BlackBerrys are quite secure, but RIM's market share is not.

　　黑莓手机安全性很高，但RIM的市场份额就没那么乐观了。

　　Although Nokia, another troubled phonemaker, still boasts high sales figures in Africa,

　　尽管另一家深陷泥潭的手机厂商诺基亚在非洲依然具有超高的销售业绩，

　　it is Chinese firms such as Huawei, ZTE and Tecno which are more likely to erode⁸ RIM's market share: they offer cheaper handsets and smartphones with two SIM cards (which allows customers to use two different networks—handy in a country where wireless⁹ service is unreliable).

　　更有可能抢占RIM的市场份额的反而是华为、中兴和德卡诺这样的中国公司：这些厂商的手机和智能手机有两个SIM卡槽（这样用户能使用两个不同的网络，这对于一个信号不好的国家来说很实用），而且价格更便宜。

　　RIM may also suffer as Nigerian operators start to offer Apple's iPhone.

　　随着尼日利亚的运营商引入苹果手机，RIM也在遭受同样的困境。

　　So Nigeria, or Africa for that matter, is unlikely to save RIM.

　　因此不论是尼日利亚，还是非洲，都无法拯救RIM。

　　For that, other things have to go right, in particular the launch of devices that use the new BlackBerry 10 software in January.

　　所以RIM必须做出正确的决策，特别是明年1月要推出使用BlackBerry 10软件的新手机。

　　Nollywood may soon have to use another storyline: being spurned¹⁰ for still using a BlackBerry.

　　诺莱坞很快就会有新故事讲了：谁还用黑莓谁就会成为笑柄。

1 rim   

n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界

参考例句：

• The water was even with the rim of the basin.盆里的水与盆边平齐了。
• She looked at him over the rim of her glass.她的目光越过玻璃杯的边沿看着他。

2 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

3 clobbered   

v.狠揍， （不停）猛打( clobber的过去式和过去分词 )；彻底击败

参考例句：

• The paper got clobbered with libel damages of half a million pounds. 这家报纸被罚以五十万英镑的诽谤损害赔偿金。
• The robbers clobbered the shopkeeper to make him open the safe. 强盗们殴打店主迫使他打开保险箱。 来自辞典例句

4 obsession   

n.困扰，无法摆脱的思想(或情感)

参考例句：

• I was suffering from obsession that my career would be ended.那时的我陷入了我的事业有可能就此终止的困扰当中。
• She would try to forget her obsession with Christopher.她会努力忘记对克里斯托弗的迷恋。

5 browse   

vi.随意翻阅，浏览；(牛、羊等)吃草

参考例句：

• I had a browse through the books on her shelf.我浏览了一下她书架上的书。
• It is a good idea to browse through it first.最好先通篇浏览一遍。

6 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

7 savvy   

v.知道，了解；n.理解能力，机智，悟性；adj.有见识的，懂实际知识的，通情达理的

参考例句：

• She was a pretty savvy woman.她是个见过世面的漂亮女人。
• Where's your savvy?你的常识到哪里去了？

8 erode   

v.侵蚀，腐蚀，使...减少、减弱或消失

参考例句：

• Once exposed,soil is quickly eroded by wind and rain.一旦暴露在外，土壤很快就会被风雨侵蚀。
• Competition in the financial marketplace has eroded profits.金融市场的竞争降低了利润。

9 wireless   

adj.无线的；n.无线电

参考例句：

• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
• Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。

10 spurned   

v.一脚踢开，拒绝接受( spurn的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Eve spurned Mark's invitation. 伊夫一口回绝了马克的邀请。
• With Mrs. Reed, I remember my best was always spurned with scorn. 对里德太太呢，我记得我的最大努力总是遭到唾弃。 来自辞典例句