硅谷硬件复兴阻力重重

例证C：电视游戏机Ouya

    去年6月，当游戏业资深人士朱莉•尤尔曼宣布推出这款99美元的电子游戏机时，在市场上引起巨大轰动。其理念是：为那些不想掏几百美元玩游戏的人打造一台廉价游戏机，并设置一种容易连接、且基于安卓（Android）系统的开源开发环境，让那些最想省钱的草根程序员也能设计游戏。尽管面向消费者的正式发布会要到6月才开，但一些成品已开始提供给众筹网站的支持者了，而初期评价并不太好。如果满分为10分，科技博客Verge只给这台游戏机3.5分。它还写道：“控制杆需要改进，界面一团糟，我还提到过这个设备没有配套产品吧？”Ouya很快做出了反应，声明这款预发布的硬件产品只是预发布的。尤尔曼则在一篇博文中解释说，像复杂的游戏安装进程这类问题将会在明年夏季得到解决，不过很明显这家初创公司还有很多工作要做。

    当然，这并不表示硬件不会迎来“复兴”。大量像Pebble和Ouya这样的公司，正在开发最终能证明自己是革命性产品的硬件。不过，所谓的“硬件复兴”还有很长的路要走。

    《财富》杂志（Fortune）的读者朋友，你怎么看这个现象呢？请在下面发表评论。（财富中文网）

    译者：清远

Exhibit C: Ouya

    The $99 home video game console spearheaded by game industry vet Julie Uhrman generated tons of buzz when it was announced last July. The idea: create a video game console for people who don't want to shell out hundreds and employ an accessible, Android-based open-source development environment so even frugal grassroots coders could put out a game. While the official consumer release isn't until June, units have already begun shipping to Kickstarter backers, and early reviews haven't been so kind. "The controller needs work, the interface is a mess, and have I mentioned there's really nothing to do with the thing?" wrote The Verge, which gave the console a mediocre 3.5 out of 10 rating. Ouya shot back, stating the pre-release hardware being sent out was just that -- pre-release -- and Uhrman clarified in a separate blog post that things like convoluted game install processes will be fixed come summer, but it's clear the startup has a lot of work to do between now and then.

    This isn't to say there won't be a hardware "reawakening," of course. Plenty of companies like Pebble and Ouya are working on hardware that could ultimately prove revolutionary. But the "hardware renaissance" has some way to go yet.

    What do you think, Fortune readers? Chime in with comments below.