金融時(shí)報(bào):艱苦新世界中的微軟蘋果

艱苦新世界中的微軟蘋果

Jason Pontin，麻省理工學(xué)院《科技評(píng)論》雜志總編。

測(cè)試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識(shí)：

smug [sm?g] n./adj.自鳴得意的

OS 操作系統(tǒng)operating system

tutelary ['tju?t?l?r?] adj.監(jiān)護(hù)的/n.守護(hù)神

bean counters 賬房先生、會(huì)計(jì)

Microsoft and Apple in a tough new world (715 words)

There is a smug maxim in Silicon Valley and the places that imitate it: “To survive, you must destroy your company every x years” (where x varies according to how much the speaker wants to stress the pace of technological change). Sometimes attributed to Intel’s former chief executive Andy Grove, it is a maxim more often repeated than observed. But it can be a lovely and startling thing when a large, publicly traded company takes a big bet by replacing its core product.

Microsoft’s new Windows 8 operating system, which went on sale last Friday, is the most dramatic gamble by a technology company since Intel abandoned the memory market to make semiconductors in the 1980s. Windows is a civilisational tool; there are more than 1bn Windows users around the world but when, after being given a new personal computer by their IT manager or buying a new device for themselves, those users boot up the new OS, they will recognise nothing.

Gone is the familiar “Start” button and user interface Microsoft has used since it launched Windows 95, 17 years ago. In its place, users will find a screen of shifting colourful tiles. If they have set up a Microsoft account with Outlook, their email, calendar and contacts will appear automatically; if their Microsoft account is linked to Facebook, the faces of their Facebook friends will begin blinking in a People tile and the photos they have posted will float into a Live tile. To its new users, Windows 8 will seem as personal – and as non-corporate – as their smartphone or tablet computers. That is the whole idea.

Windows 8 can be used with a conventional personal computer with a mouse or touchpad, but doing so is confusing. The operating system works best with a touchscreen, where users can swipe tiles and icons. To show off the new functionality, Microsoft is selling its first computer, the Surface – a $499 touchscreen tablet whose cover is a small keyboard, so that the device can also function as a small laptop.

Windows 8 and Surface are elegant and innovative, not qualities one associates with Microsoft’s products. They are mostly the work of Steven Sinofsky, president of the company’s Windows division, who keeps a much-read blog at MSDN, the Microsoft developer network. There, defending the radical change in the design, he wrote: “The new Windows 8 user experience is no less than a bet on the future of computing, and stakes a claim to Windows’ role in that future.”

Last week the crush at Microsoft’s Times Square store reminded some of the crowds at the launch of an Apple product – which must have been Microsoft’s hope. But Mr Sinofsky’s bet also has the logic of desperation. A decade ago there were no competitors to Microsoft’s core business of developing and selling “platforms”, the software upon which other developers’ software must run and with which hardware must work. Today, the web is the platform for most computing and Apple’s iOS (the operating system of the iPhone and iPad) and Google’s Android are the platforms for mobile devices. The sharp edges between business and consumer computing have melted. Microsoft had no choice but to try something new.

It is instructive to compare the launch of Windows 8 and Surface with Apple’s most recent release, the iPad mini. There’s nothing wrong with the mini: for Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, it must seem to fill an important niche – the market for tablets that can be held comfortably in one hand, where Amazon’s Kindle and devices based on Android now dominate. But there’s nothing innovative about Apple’s small tablet. It’s just more of the same. One cannot imagine the late Steve Jobs, Apple’s departed CEO, taking any pride in the thing.

It is an interesting historical moment for the two founding companies of the personal computing revolution. Microsoft knows it is slowly dying but declines to accept its fate. Apple, flush with cash, does not yet have to admit that with the death of its tutelary genius, it has lost its way. But secretly, its executives, designers and developers must fear that something is badly wrong. Jobs always said that technology companies began to die when salespeople and bean counters started making the decisions.

請(qǐng)根據(jù)你所讀到的文章內(nèi)容，完成以下自測(cè)題目：

1.What does the writer mean by saying "those users boot up the new OS, they will recognise nothing"?

A. Those who use Windows are generally not good at using computers.

B. Apple's OS is so different from Windows.

C. Windows is so good that other operating systems can hardly survive.

D. Windows has been enjoying a monopolistic position in operating system market.

答案(1)

2.Who is dominating the market for small tablet computers?

A. iPad

B. iPad mini

C. Kindle and Android tablets

D. Nobody is. It is a highly competitive market.

答案(2)

3."Microsoft had no choice but to try something new."

Which of the following can surport this?

A. Apple is threatening Microsoft's core business of selling "platforms".

B. The differences between business and personal computing are disappearing.

C. Apple and Google are dominating mobile OS market, Microsoft is a latecomer.

D. All of above.

答案(3)

4.Which of the following is not the writer's opinion?

A. The maxim “To survive, you must destroy your company every x years” is not practical.

B. Steve Jobs would be gald to see the launch of iPad mini.

C. Windows 8 and Surface do not inherit the usual Microsoft style.

D. The future pictures for Apple and Microsoft are vague.

答案(4)

* * *

(1) 答案：A.Windows has been enjoying a monopolistic position in operating system market.

解釋：作者在第二段的意思是，微軟的win8如同當(dāng)年的英特爾一樣，這是在革自己的命(dramatic gamble)。 因?yàn)橐呀?jīng)有10億以上的用戶熟悉以開始按鈕為特色的Windows系統(tǒng)。而現(xiàn)在公司的產(chǎn)品要大轉(zhuǎn)向了。iOS是由蘋果公司為iPhone開發(fā)的操作系統(tǒng)，也給iPhone、iPod touch以及iPad使用。

(2) 答案：C.Kindle and Android tablets

解釋：文章倒數(shù)第二段中，作者說，蒂姆·庫克很有必要fill an important niche – the market for tablets that can be held comfortably in one hand. 也就是說雖然iPad熱賣，但是可以拿在一只手中操作的小平板電腦市場(chǎng)現(xiàn)在是亞馬遜Kindle和安卓平板主導(dǎo)。蘋果公司因此推出iPad mini，希望在這個(gè)市場(chǎng)進(jìn)行競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。

(3) 答案：D.All of above.

解釋：理解了這句話，你就理解了本文作者的主要觀點(diǎn)：微軟推出win8和平板電腦是為形勢(shì)所迫，被迫應(yīng)戰(zhàn)。

(4) 答案：A.Steve Jobs would be gald to see the launch of iPad mini.

解釋：B不正確的，喬布斯才不會(huì)推出iPad mini這種沒什么創(chuàng)新的產(chǎn)品呢。A是正確的，作者在第一段就說這個(gè)很酷的口號(hào)more often repeated than observed. C也正確，win8和Surface不像微軟以前的產(chǎn)品，它們elegant and innovative.至于D，本文的標(biāo)題就已經(jīng)清楚表達(dá)了。