本周最新文章選讀 From the Economists偉哉賈伯斯

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From the Economists

The magician魔術鬼才賈伯斯

The revolution that Steve Jobs led is only just beginning

蘋果革命正要開始

Oct 8th 2011 | from the print edition

WHEN it came to putting on a show(擅長表演的), nobody else in the computer industry, or any other industry for that matter, could match Steve Jobs. His product launches(新產品發表會), at which he would stand alone on a black stage and conjure up如魔法般呈現 an “incredible” new electronic gadget全新的電子玩意兒(這邊指的是如iphone,iPad之類的3C產品) in front of an awed crowd敬畏的群眾(每次賈伯斯在台上介紹新產品，台下的觀眾總是如癡如醉，眼神中還帶著些許崇拜與敬畏), were the performances of a master showman. All computers do is fetch and shuffle numbers, he once explained, but do it fast enough and “the results appear to be magic”. Mr. Jobs, who died this week aged 56, spent his life packaging that magic into elegantly designed, easy-to-use products.賈伯斯終其一生都致力於一件事情，那就是以創意結合高雅的設計，然後以最容易上手的操作方式，讓產品展現魔幻一般的魅力。

The reaction to his death, with people leaving candles and flowers outside Apple stores and the internet humming網路上對於賈伯斯此起彼落的致意聲(humming本是指嗡嗡聲，這邊是指大家緬懷他的聲音，在網路上形成一股聲浪) with tributes from politicians, is proof that Mr. Jobs had become something much more significant than just a clever money-maker這些後人對他的景仰與崇拜，讓賈伯斯成為有別於一般成功企業家的另類傳奇. He stood out in three ways—as a technologist科技達人, as a corporate leader企業領導者 and as somebody who was able to make people love what had previously been impersonal, functional gadgets. Strangely, it is this last quality that may have the deepest effect on the way people live. The era of personal technology is in many ways just beginning.從各個角度來觀察，個人化科技的時代已經來臨

Apple of his eye

蘋果是一生的摯愛

As a technologist, Mr. Jobs was different because he was not an engineer—and that was his great strength. Instead he was obsessed with product design and aesthetics, and with making advanced technology simple to use. He repeatedly took an existing but half-formed idea—the mouse-driven computer透過滑鼠操作的電腦, the digital music player數位音樂播放器, the smartphone智慧型手機, the tablet computer平板電腦(如iPad)—and showed the rest of the industry how to do it properly. Rival firms scrambled to follow where he led(注意這邊作者生動的描繪，這句話的意思是，賈伯斯永遠在引領風潮，他的競爭對手只能踉蹌慌亂地在後面跟隨，言下之意就是，沒有人追得過他的創意與巧思). In the process he triggered upheavals讓個人科技浪潮產生劇變 in computing, music, telecoms and the news business that were painful for incumbent firms but welcomed by millions of consumers.賈伯斯所引領的蘋果風潮讓業界皮皮銼，卻是消費者的福音

Within the wider business world, a man who liked to see himself as a hippy嬉皮, permanently in revolt against永遠都在對抗 big companies, ended up being hailed by many of those corporate giants as one of the greatest chief executives of his time.賈伯斯的領導風格讓許多大型企業的主管認可，一致推崇他是史上最佳的企業領導人 That was partly due to his talents: showmanship善於表演的, strategic vision具有策略思維的腦袋, an astonishing attention to detail非常重視細節 and a dictatorial management style獨裁式的經營管理模式 which many bosses must have envied這些都讓許多其他的主管非常欽羨. But most of all it was the extraordinary trajectory of his life. His fall from grace in the 1980s(賈伯斯曾經在意氣風發的時候黯然下台過，之後才又東山再起), followed by his return to Apple in 1996 after a period in the wilderness, is an inspiration to any businessperson whose career has taken a turn for the worse(賈伯斯的親身經歷，成了啟發許多有類似際遇的企業家一個最佳範例) The way in which Mr. Jobs revived the ailing company如何讓一個垂死的企業重新站上勝方 he had co-founded and turned it into the world’s biggest tech firm (bigger even than Bill Gates’s Microsoft, the company that had outsmarted Apple so dramatically in the 1980s), sounds like something from a Hollywood movie—which, no doubt, it soon will be.

But what was perhaps most astonishing about Mr. Jobs was the fanatical loyalty消費者的死忠 he managed to inspire in customers. Which other technology brand do you ever see on bumper stickers汽車保險桿上面的貼紙? Many Apple users feel themselves to be part of a community, with Mr. Jobs as its leader. And there was indeed a personal link. Apple’s products were designed to accord with與…相同 the boss’s tastes and to meet his obsessively high standards因為要求過高而走火入魔的風格. Every iPhone or MacBook has his fingerprints all over it(這句話的意思是說，iphone與ipad上面都印滿了賈伯斯的指紋，言下之意是這兩樣產品是他的心血結晶). His great achievement was to combine an emotional spark情緒的火花 with computer technology, and make the resulting product feel personal. And that is what put Mr. Jobs on the right side of history, as the epicentre of technological innovation has moved into consumer electronics消費性電子產品 over the past decade.

A world without Jobs 後賈伯斯時代

As our special report in this week’s issue (printed before Mr Jobs’s death) explains, innovation used to spill over從…來 from military and corporate laboratories to the consumer market, but lately this process has gone into reverse.(這句話的意思是，過去消費性電子產品的諸多點子，多從美國軍方與企業的實驗室而來，不過因為有了賈伯斯，這個現象如今已經倒轉，現在是消費性電子商品在扮演引領軍事科技的角色) Many people’s homes now have more powerful, and more flexible, devices than their offices do; consumer gizmos(gizmo此字與gadget同意思，都是些小玩意) and online services are smarter and easier to use than most companies’ systems. Familiar consumer products are being adopted by businesses, government and the armed forces軍隊. Companies are employing in-house versions of Facebook and creating their own “app stores” to deliver software to smartphone - toting employees(許多企業正仿效facebook採行一種企業內部的社群連結方式，並且發明了屬於自己的app store讓員工去使用並運作，這些都得歸功於賈伯斯的巧思). Doctors use tablet computers for their work in hospitals. Meanwhile, the number of consumers hungry for such gadgets continues to swell持續成長. Apple’s products are now being snapped up被搶購一空 in Delhi印度的德里 and Dalian中國的大連 just as in Dublin愛爾蘭首都的都柏林 and Dallas美國的達拉斯.(這邊要說明的是，作者以全世界各地的主要城市來說明蘋果產品的成功經驗，以英文字母D開頭的城市來達到一個一致性，這是可以提供參考的寫作風格)

Mr. Jobs had a reputation as a control freak賈伯斯是個為人所熟知的控制狂, and his critics complained that the products and systems he designed were closed and inflexible, in the name of greater ease of use. Yet he also empowered millions of people by giving them access to cutting-edge technology先進的科技. His insistence on putting users first強調使用者優先, and focusing on elegance and simplicity, has become deeply ingrained in根深蒂固的 his own company, and is spreading to rival firms 競爭對手的公司too. It is no longer just at Apple that designers ask: “What would Steve Jobs do?”

The gap between Apple and other tech firms is now likely to narrow. This week’s announcement of a new iPhone by a management team led by Tim Cook, who replaced Mr. Jobs as chief executive in August, was generally regarded as competent but uninspiring後賈伯斯時代，取而代之的是Tim Cook這個人被一般人視為是個有能力但是缺乏魅力的領導者. Without Mr. Jobs to sprinkle his star dust沒有賈伯斯現場的舞台魅力(to sprinkle star dust的意思就是仙女出現的時候有星塵的魔幻效果) on the event, it felt like just another product launch from just another technology firm. At the recent unveiling of a tablet computer by Jeff Bezos of Amazon, whose company is doing the best job of following Apple’s lead in combining hardware, software, content and services in an easy-to-use bundle, there were several swipes at Apple. But by doing his best to imitate Mr. Jobs, Mr Bezos also flattered him. With Mr. Jobs gone, Apple is just one of many technology firms trying to invoke his unruly spirit in new products.這一段的大意在說明，其他的競爭對手如亞馬遜，也在賈伯斯過世後試著要推出類似ipad的產品，不過這些行為只是更證明只有蘋果的商品才是引領潮流的正統，其他的仿效只是更加凸顯了賈伯斯的偉大罷了

Mr. Jobs was said by an engineer in the early years of Apple to emit散發出一種 a “reality distortion field”(現實扭曲力場，簡稱為RDF這個詞彙源自於星艦迷航記的一個科技術語，不過後來則被使用在賈伯斯的領導能力上，說明了賈柏斯有能力去說服自己與身邊的人，透過魅力、行銷手法與各種誇張的詞句等方式，去改變與他共事的人甚至消費者的想法，進而認同他所提倡的說法與理念), such were his powers of persuasion. But in the end he conjured up a reality of his own, channelling the magic of computing into products that reshaped entire industries.重新定義了整個科技產業 The man who said in his youth that he wanted to “put a ding in the universe”在宇宙中留下一點屬於自己的聲音 did just that.其實賈伯斯留下的可是一聲巨響，而不只是一聲叮而已。

from the Economists print edition | Leaders