“為敵意而生”的iPhone

Some of the greatest gadgets start with a flash of inspiration by a designer. Others are the result of a technological breakthrough. Apple’s iPhone, which went on sale 10 years ago this week, began with a grudge.

一些最偉大的產(chǎn)品始于設(shè)計(jì)師一閃而過(guò)的靈感。其他則是技術(shù)突破的結(jié)果。在10年前的本周開(kāi)始銷售的蘋(píng)果(Apple) iPhone始于怨恨。

“It began because Steve hated this guy at Microsoft,” said Scott Forstall, Apple’s former software chief and one of the top deputies to the company’s late co-founder Steve Jobs.

已故聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人史蒂夫•喬布斯(Steve Jobs)的高級(jí)副手之一、蘋(píng)果前首席軟件師斯科特•福斯托(Scott Forstall)表示：“之所以開(kāi)始設(shè)計(jì)iPhone，是因?yàn)槭返俜蛴憛捨④?Microsoft)的這個(gè)家伙”。

The touchscreen era began 10 years ago on June 29, 2007, when the iPhone first went on sale, and Mr Forstall recounted the animosity behind its creation at an event at the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley last week, his first such interview since leaving Apple in 2012.

觸摸屏?xí)r代開(kāi)始于10年前的2007年6月29日，當(dāng)時(shí)蘋(píng)果剛剛開(kāi)始銷售iPhone。福斯托上周在硅谷“計(jì)算機(jī)歷史博物館”(Computer History Museum)舉行的一場(chǎng)活動(dòng)中，談到了iPhone問(wèn)世背后的這種敵意，這是他自2012年離開(kāi)蘋(píng)果后首次接受此類采訪。

Before the iPhone was a phone, it was a tablet and the touchscreen technology that would later find its way into the iPad began as a secret research project commissioned by Jobs, Mr Forstall recalled.

福斯托回憶道，iPhone在成為電話之前是被作為平板電腦研究的，后來(lái)運(yùn)用于iPad的觸摸屏技術(shù)最初是喬布斯授權(quán)的秘密研究項(xiàng)目。

The offending Microsoft employee, who was a friend of a friend of Jobs, had been bragging about the software company’s new tablet computer, which used a stylus for input. “Anytime Steve had any social interaction with that guy, he came back just pissed off,” he said.

冒犯喬布斯的微軟員工是喬布斯的朋友的朋友，他一直吹噓微軟開(kāi)發(fā)的利用手寫(xiě)筆輸入的新的平板電腦。福斯托說(shuō)：“喬布斯每次在社交場(chǎng)合與這個(gè)人接觸之后，回來(lái)都是怒氣沖沖。”

After one such weekend encounter, Jobs arrived at Apple on a Monday morning fuming: “Let’s show them how it’s really done.”

在某個(gè)周末會(huì)面之后，喬布斯周一早上趕到蘋(píng)果公司時(shí)氣急敗壞地說(shuō)道：“讓我們做給他看，這些產(chǎn)品應(yīng)該是怎樣的。”

Microsoft were “idiots”, Mr Forstall recalled Jobs saying. “You don’t use a stylus . . . You are born with 10 styluses.”

福斯托回憶道，喬布斯說(shuō)，微軟是“白癡”，“你不用使用手寫(xiě)筆……我們天生就有10支手寫(xiě)筆。”

Apple went on to sell more than 1bn iPhones, making it one of the most successful consumer products of all time and propelling the company to record-breaking profits. Mobile industry commentator Horace Dediu has estimated that iOS devices and apps will together have generated over $1tn in revenues for Apple by the end of 2017.

自那以來(lái)蘋(píng)果銷售了逾10億部iPhone，使其成為歷史上最為成功的消費(fèi)產(chǎn)品之一，并推動(dòng)公司實(shí)現(xiàn)創(chuàng)紀(jì)錄的利潤(rùn)。移動(dòng)行業(yè)分析師霍勒斯•德迪烏(Horace Dediu)估計(jì)，到2017年年底，iOS設(shè)備及應(yīng)用加起來(lái)將會(huì)為蘋(píng)果貢獻(xiàn)逾1萬(wàn)億美元的累計(jì)收入。

Yet despite the urgency with which Jobs instigated the development of what would become the iPhone’s multi-touch technology, the project languished for several years.

然而，盡管喬布斯敦促盡快研發(fā)后來(lái)運(yùn)用于iPhone的多觸點(diǎn)技術(shù)，但該項(xiàng)目仍在數(shù)年里一籌莫展。

It was revived only when Jobs, looking to head off looming competition to the then-dominant iPod music player, suggested touch technology would make mobile phones less “angsty” to use.

只有在當(dāng)時(shí)占據(jù)主導(dǎo)地位的iPod音樂(lè)播放器面臨競(jìng)爭(zhēng)、而喬布斯尋求反擊的時(shí)候——他提出，觸摸技術(shù)將使手機(jī)用起來(lái)不太“讓人焦慮”——后，該項(xiàng)目才形成勢(shì)頭。

In the mid-2000s, when the Motorola Razr became a bestseller, traditional phone manufacturers such as Nokia were being “incremental”, said Hugo Fiennes, another former Apple engineer who spoke at the Computer History Museum’s event. “At Apple there was no holding back.”

另一位蘋(píng)果前工程師雨果•費(fèi)因斯(Hugo Fiennes)在計(jì)算機(jī)歷史博物館的會(huì)議上表示，在2005年前后摩托羅拉(Motorola)的“剃刀”(Razr)熱銷的時(shí)候，諾基亞(Nokia)等傳統(tǒng)的手機(jī)制造商表現(xiàn)出“步子太慢”，而那時(shí)“蘋(píng)果已全力投入新產(chǎn)品的研發(fā)”。

Development of the iPhone was famously secretive. Employees working on “Project Purple” were not even allowed to tell their families what they were creating. Teams working on different elements of the device were unaware of what each other were doing. Mr Fiennes, who was part of the team working on multitouch hardware, said the first time he saw the resulting software features such as “pinch to zoom” was when Jobs unveiled it at the iPhone’s launch event.

iPhone的研發(fā)工作隱秘得出名。參與“紫色項(xiàng)目”的員工甚至不被允許告訴家人他們?cè)诠膿v什么新產(chǎn)品。從事iPhone部件研發(fā)的各小組彼此不知道別人在做什么。費(fèi)因斯是從事多點(diǎn)觸控硬件研發(fā)團(tuán)隊(duì)的一員，他說(shuō)，他第一次看到這種硬件帶來(lái)的“捏拉縮放”等軟件功能，是喬布斯在iPhone發(fā)布會(huì)上展示的時(shí)候。

Mr Forstall had no experience in telecoms before working on the project and had never sent a text message before doing so on an iPhone. Yet despite this, Apple considered buying its own mobile spectrum or becoming a “virtual” mobile network operator, reselling another telecoms provider’s services under its brand, he said. Ultimately the company decided to partner with AT&T to distribute the device.

福斯托在從事iPhone項(xiàng)目之前沒(méi)有任何電信行業(yè)的經(jīng)驗(yàn)，在iPhone誕生前甚至從未發(fā)過(guò)短信。然而他說(shuō)，盡管如此，蘋(píng)果曾考慮收購(gòu)移動(dòng)通信頻譜，或者成為一家“虛擬”移動(dòng)網(wǎng)絡(luò)運(yùn)營(yíng)商，在自己的品牌下轉(zhuǎn)賣另一家電信提供商的服務(wù)。最終，該公司決定與AT&T合作來(lái)售賣iPhone。

“Of course [all the secrecy] was an impediment,” said Nitin Ganatra, who was director of engineering for iOS applications until he left Apple in 2012. “But at the same time, there was so much value there as well, by having this secret . . . Nobody knew what was coming.”

在2012年離開(kāi)蘋(píng)果前擔(dān)任iOS應(yīng)用程序工程總監(jiān)的尼廷•加納特拉(Nitin Ganatra)表示：“當(dāng)然(保密)是障礙。但與此同時(shí)，保密也是很有價(jià)值的……沒(méi)有人知道我們會(huì)推出什么全新產(chǎn)品。”

The iPhone’s timing turned out to be good, with internet services such as YouTube and Google Maps on the rise and the emergence of affordable mobile data contracts. The iPhone really began to fulfil its potential in 2008 when, despite Jobs’ initial reluctance to allow software from outside Apple to run on the device, the App Store made its debut.

事實(shí)證明，iPhone發(fā)布恰逢其時(shí)，YouTube和谷歌地圖(Google Maps)等互聯(lián)網(wǎng)服務(wù)日益增多，同時(shí)還出現(xiàn)了價(jià)格適中的移動(dòng)數(shù)據(jù)合同。2008年App Store開(kāi)張后，iPhone真正開(kāi)始實(shí)現(xiàn)其潛力，盡管喬布斯最初不愿允許蘋(píng)果以外的軟件在iPhone上運(yùn)行。

The iPhone redefined what a mobile device could do, prompting countless imitators (and more than a few lawsuits by Apple as a result). The iPhone now accounts for about two-thirds of Apple’s revenues and an even larger share of the mobile industry's entire profits.

iPhone重新定義了手機(jī)的功能，吸引了不計(jì)其數(shù)的模仿者(結(jié)果是蘋(píng)果提起了好幾起訴訟)。iPhone現(xiàn)在為蘋(píng)果貢獻(xiàn)了大約三分之二的收入，在整個(gè)移動(dòng)設(shè)備行業(yè)的利潤(rùn)份額甚至更大。

While Mr Forstall admitted that pricing “was a challenge” — the upfront cost of the device had to be cut by $200 just a few months after it went on sale — he never had any doubt it would be “huge”.

盡管福斯托承認(rèn)，定價(jià)“是一個(gè)挑戰(zhàn)”——iPhone在上市幾個(gè)月后，就不得不減價(jià)200美元——但他從未懷疑iPhone將成為“轟動(dòng)產(chǎn)品”。

“Using it, it never felt like work,” he said. “And I knew, this is it — everything is going to behave this way.”

他說(shuō)：“使用它從不讓人感覺(jué)像是工作，我當(dāng)時(shí)就明白，這就是理想境界——一切產(chǎn)品都會(huì)像這樣。”