为中国而生：苹果手表的秘密战略

    作为一款时尚奢侈品，苹果手表在中国显然拥有非常光明的前景。上周一。当前美国超模克里斯蒂•特灵顿•伯恩斯现身苹果发布会，解释她如何使用苹果手表健身时，很多人称这是一次“尴尬甚至不搭调的代言”——作为一名超模，代言这样一款宅男专用产品，实在违合感太强。而当中国超模刘雯戴着苹果手表登上《Vogue服饰与美容》封面时，几乎没有人任何人站出来挑毛病。该杂志中文版总编这样描述这种差异：“我们比其他地方的人更容易接受新技术和新数码产品。”

    当然，苹果多年来一直在中国潜心耕耘，想方设法地为苹果手表铺路。2013年，该公司与中国最大的国有运营商——中国移动达成了一项具有“分水岭”意义的协议，以确保中国最大的移动网络支持iPhone。而早在2007年，也就是第一代iPhone刚刚问世时，双方就开始酝酿这项合作了。最近苹果也将iPhone 6和iPhone 6 plus推向中国市场，这两款产品搭载了中国用户盼望已久的大屏。上个季度，全球iPhone销量达到了创纪录的7450万部，尽管苹果没有披露按国别划分的销售数字，但据UBS公司预测，中国目前占据iPhone市场的36%，首次超过了美国的份额。

    此外，苹果已经在有意地建立苹果手表与中国的联系。在3月9日苹果发布会的开场视频中，就出现了中国一家苹果旗舰店开张的画面。到2016年年中，中国苹果零售店的数量将达到目前的两倍。随后，苹果还特意指出这款手表完全可以与微信兼容——这个举动非常明智，因为已经有中国用户表达了苹果手表的屏幕太小，恐怕难以兼容微信的担忧。

    因此，尽管苹果手表在西方的销路或许依然存疑，但它在中国显然有自己的市场。鉴于中国市场一直在为苹果公司贡献巨额利润，中国用户是否喜爱苹果手表将直接决定这款设备上市初期的市场表现。（财富中文网）

    译者：朴成奎

    审校：任文科

    Apple Watch’s promise in China as a fashionable luxury item is already clear. When former supermodel Christy Turlington Burns appeared during Apple’s U.S. event Monday to explain how she’s using Apple Watch for fitness, critics called it an awkward, even irrelevant product placement — an iconic women’s advocatewearing a watch “skewed to geeky guys.” But when theApple Watch graced the cover of Vogue Chinaalongside China’s most famous model, Liu Wen, hardly anyone batted an eye. As Vogue China’s editor-in-chief described the difference, “We embrace new technology and digital products more easily than perhaps people elsewhere.”

    Of course, Apple has spent years laying the groundwork in China for a potential hit with the Apple Watch. It sealed a “watershed” deal with state-owned China Mobile in 2013 to ensure China’s largest mobile network supported iPhones, an agreement that was in the making as far back as in 2007 when the first iPhone launched. Apple also recently brought its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus to China, which sport the larger screens Chinese users have long demanded. Apple shipped a record-breaking 74.5 million iPhones worldwide last quarter, and while Apple doesn’t breakdown shipments by country, UBS estimates that China now claims 36% of the iPhone market, surpassing the U.S. for the first time.

    And Apple has already linked the Apple Watch to China. The company’s March 9 event kicked off with a video showing the opening of a new flagship Apple Store in China, where the retail locations are set todouble by mid-2016. Later, Apple showed off the Apple Watch’s compatibility with WeChat, a wildly popular messaging app in China. It was a wise move, as Chinese users have expressed worry that Apple Watch’s screen is too small for the app.

    So while Apple Watch’s relevance in the West may continue to be questioned, the wearable has a clear place in China. Given how lucrativeChina has been for Apple, whether or not China loves the Apple Watch could be precisely what makes or breaks the device initial reception.