苹果需要新谈资

    2013年年中，我们陷入了一种群体性的平静。手机市场波澜不惊，依然是苹果和安卓两家独大。Mac和个人电脑市场在日渐萎缩，尽管苹果的表现好于竞争对手。此外，还要对三星（Samsung）说一声抱歉（三星公司曾推出名为“The Next Big Thing”的广告），因为不论是颠覆性的电视、可穿戴计算设备、物联网还是会做饮料、讲笑话的机器人管家，下一个奇迹都没有光临三星。

    而试图塑造下一个时代的苹果公司也并没有拿出他们的手段。因此，库克的话题也只能始终围绕着过去和现在的策略，一边努力争取时间，直到苹果的天才们搞清楚，他们将给未来产品打上怎样的标签。

    我们需要清楚的是：是不是多年来一直被库克所取笑的这些下一代产品实际上此刻已经存在于库比蒂诺某处的秘密实验室里。我们目前正处于科技行业的两次变革之间，科技界一直在寻找一款产品，能像iPhone一样刺激一代技术工作者。上一次的突破来自苹果，因此人们很自然会期望，苹果能够带来下一个奇迹。因为虽然苹果失去了乔布斯，但苹果的大部分仍被完好地保留了下来。

    一切都有可能发生，也有可能不会发生。但不论是苹果还是其他公司生产出下一个突破性产品，到那时，库克的公开露面都会变得越来越不重要：如果他每次露面依然是老生常谈，没有新的话题，那就意味着我们也没有必要再密切关注苹果的一言一行了。

    希望下一个突破性产品早点到来。只有当我们亲眼见证一服务全新的、激动人心的事物茁壮成长的时候，才会发现科技原来是如此有趣。（财富中文网）

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    In mid-2013, we’re in a collective lull. Mobile is old news, dominated by Apple and Android. The Mac/PC market is in freefall, even if Apple is still doing better than the competition. And with apologies to Samsung, the next big thing — disruptive TV, wearable computing, the internet of things, or robot butlers that make drinks and crack jokes — is not here yet.

    The Apple that will attempt to shape that next era has yet to show its hand, leaving Cook in a holding pattern talking about the strategies of the past and present while buying time until Apple’s wizards figure out how they’re going to put their stamp on the products of the future.

    Let’s be very clear: should these next-generation products Cook has teased for years actually exist somewhere in a secretive lab in Cupertino, this is a blip in time for Apple. We’re simply between breakthroughs as an industry, searching for something that will galvanize a generation of technologists the way the iPhone did. Apple produced the last breakthrough, and people naturally expect that it will produce the next one given that so much of the company remains intact despite the loss of Jobs.

    That may or may not happen. But until then either Apple or someone else produces that breakthrough, Cook’s public appearances grow less and less important: if all he’s going to do is cover ground he’s covered before without a new story to tell, the need to pay attention to Apple’s every word becomes less and less important.

    Let’s hope that next breakthrough comes soon. Technology is a more interesting subject when we’re all watching something new and exciting bloom.