Apple版 - Editorial: It's Apple's 'post-PC' world -- we're all just living in it |
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r******y
发帖数: 3838 | 1 http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/03/editorial-its-apples-post-pc
On Wednesday, Apple introduced the world to the iPad 2. A beautiful device,
to be sure. Feature packed?
You bet. Soon to be selling like hotcakes? Absolutely. But the introduction
of an iteration on an already
existing product wasn't the most notable piece of the event, nor was the
surprise appearance of Steve Jobs.
No, Wednesday's event was significant because it introduced the world to
Apple's real vision for the
foreseeable future, a theme the company has hinted at but never fully
expressed. This week, Apple showed
everyone where it was headed, challenged competitors on that direction, and
made it clear that the
company not only has staked a claim in that space, but is defining it.
This week, Apple stepped into the "post-PC" era of computing -- and there's
no looking back, at least not
for the folks in Cupertino.
By joining the company's ongoing vision of a "different" kind of computing
with a soundbite friendly piece
of marketing-speak, Apple has changed the rules of the game, and made the
competition's efforts not just
an uphill battle, but -- at least in the eyes of Steve Jobs and co. --
essentially moot. But what exactly is the
"post-PC" world? And why is it significant? Let me explain.
In this new world, Apple no longer has to compete on specs and features, nor
does it want to. There is no
Mac vs. PC here -- only "the future" versus "the past." It won't be a debate
about displays, memory, wireless
options -- it will be a debate about the quality of the experience. Apple is
not just eschewing the spec
conversation in favor of a different conversation -- it's rendering those
former conversations useless. It
would be like trying to compare a race car to a deeply satisfying book. In a
post-PC world, the experience
of the product is central and significant above all else. It's not the RAM
or CPU speed, screen resolution or
number of ports which dictate whether a product is valuable; it becomes
purely about the experience of
using the device. What that means is that while Motorola and Verizon will
spend millions of dollars
advertising the Xoom's 4G upgrade options, CPU speed, and high-resolution
cameras, Apple need only
delight consumers and tell them that specs and and speed are the domain of a
dinosaur called the PC.
Apple isn't claiming victory in the Space Race -- it's ceding space to the
competition.
But guess who gets Earth all to itself? Apple's not saying that it beats
other tablets on the market. It's
saying "we do one thing, and these guys do something else altogether." They'
re not competition -- they're
not even playing the same game!
That's not to say Apple has given up on PCs, and in fact, the company's
laptop sales are consistently
exceeding expectations. But take a look at what's creeping around the corner
. There's Lion, with its iOS-like
interface, its simplified experience. If Apple has its way, and if the sales
of its mobile devices carry on in the
manner they have up until now, a post-PC outlook will even fit devices that
look alarmingly like... PCs.
But right now -- in the tablet space at least -- the problem for Motorola,
Samsung, HP, RIM, and anyone
else who is challenging Apple becomes infinitely more difficult. Almost any
company could put together a
more powerful or spec-heavy tablet, but all the horsepower in the world can'
t help you if you don't find a
way to delight the average consumer. Those other tablet makers may have
superior hardware (and in the
case of the Xoom, some superior software as well), but without that key
component of sheer delight, the
road for them is long and hard. HP is getting close by touting features like
Touch-to-Share, but against
experiences like the new GarageBand for iOS and the 65,000 apps (and
counting) that currently exist, it's
hard to see a clear path to sizable competition. That goes for Google and
RIM as well.
What Apple has done by introducing its "post-PC" language into the
vernacular is almost more a game of
semantics. Now when Motorola boasts the brain-crushing, bone-splitting power
of the Xoom, the company
could easily come off like the guy who buys the red Ferrari because he has
something to prove.
Apple isn't just challenging perceptions of the PC -- they're saying that
the age of the PC is over (at least
for most people). The company is forcing consumers to ask if they even still
want or need something called
a PC (while of course making sure to point out that the competition is
playing the same old game). And
really, that's all part of the plan. Apple is in the process of making the
iPad the de-facto standard for what
the next stage of computing looks like, from the look and feel to the kind
of software and experiences you
have on the device. Apple doesn't just want to own the market -- it wants to
own the idea of the market.
We've seen this act before, and we know how it ends.
There was a time before the iPod too, when companies like HP, Samsung, and
even Microsoft fought against
Apple for the hearts and minds of the consumer -- but I'll be damned if
anyone can remember it. | r******y
发帖数: 3838 | 2 http://www.weiphone.com/apple/comment/2011-03-05/Engadget_Edito
PC_era_231662.shtml
本周三，苹果向全世界发布了iPad 2。毫无疑问，这是款美丽的设备。功能繁多？当
然了。将会大卖？绝对是。但是，
对现有产品的升级换代并不是此次发布会的重点，首席执行官史蒂夫•乔布斯 （
Steve Jobs）的惊喜亮相也不能算重
点，都不是。周三的发布会之所以重要，是因为苹果公布了其在可预见未来中的发展方
针，此前苹果一直都有暗示，但
没有完整阐 述过的发展方针。不过就在本周，苹果向大家公布了它的发展方向，并且
苹果已经明确表示，它不仅是要在
相关领域攫取份额，它还要亲自定义这个领域。
就是本周，苹果义无反顾的步入了“后PC”时代，它不会回头，至少不会为了那些
竞争对手。可以说苹果已经改变了
游戏规则，让竞争加剧，但在乔布斯眼里，这些都毫无意义。那究竟什么是“后PC”时
代？为什么如此重要？下面让我详
细解释。
在这个新的时代，苹果不需要在规格和功能上与他人竞争，它也不想那么做。这里
已经没有Mac和PC的对抗，只
有“未来”对抗“过去”。这不会再 有关于显示、内存和无线选项的辩论，只有关于
体验质量的辩论。苹果不仅避开了这些
关于规格的讨论，它还在强调之前的讨论毫无意义，就好像是拿一辆赛车和一 本名著
书籍作对比。在后PC的世界里，产
品的体验是中心和重点，凌驾于一切之上，这跟内存或CPU的速度无关，也不再由屏幕
分辨率和接口数量来决定产品的
价值，最后一切都集中到了使用设备的体验上。这也就意味着，正当摩托罗拉和
Verizon花费数百万美元为Xoom 4G平
板升级打广告，宣传它的 CPU速度和高分辨率摄像头时，苹果只需要取悦消费者，并告
诉他们：规格和速度是PC这种恐
龙时代的主角。苹果不会谋求在配 置竞赛中取得胜利，它放弃了这一块的竞争。
但最后谁取得了胜利？苹果没说它打败了市面上的其他平板电脑。苹果只是说，我
们在做一件事，他们在合力做另
一件事。双方没有竞争，双方甚至玩的不是同一个游戏。
这并不是说苹果已经放弃了PC，事实上，苹果的笔记本电脑销售始终超出预期。但
是奇怪的地方在于，苹果笔记本
的类iOS界面，简约的体验。如果苹果还是按原来的方式，如果它的移动设备销售还是
和原来的一样，那后PC的展望会
与PC惊人的相似。
但现在，至少是在平板电脑领域，摩托罗拉、三星、惠普、RIM等厂商面临的问题
是挑战苹果变得更加困难。几乎
每家公司都有一款功能强大、配置一 流的平板电脑，但这都不能吸引到一般消费者。
它们的硬件配置更强大，但却缺乏
一个重要组成部分：纯粹的快乐。对这些厂商而言，道路是漫长而艰辛的。惠普近 来
用“触摸共享”功能招揽客户，但却
与iOS上的新版GarageBand体验等背道而驰，此外App Store现有6.5万个应用，并且数
量还在不断增加，很难想象惠
普可以和苹果同等竞争，谷歌和RIM也是一样。
苹果引入“后PC”的说法并不是在玩文字游戏。现在摩托罗拉自夸Xoom多么多么强
大，看起来就好像是买了红色法
拉利的人，必须要向别人吹嘘点什么。
苹果不止是在挑战PC观念，它说PC时代已经结束。苹果还在迫使消费者扪心自问：
我们还想或真的需要这个叫做
PC的东西吗？没错，这都是计划的 一部分。苹果正在将iPad确立为计算机时代下一阶
段的事实标准，从外观到感觉，从
软件到体验。苹果不想拥有这个市场，它想拥有的是市场理念。我们之前见 识过这种
行为，也知道结局是什么。 |
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