美国无线设备制造商Jawbone

公司收入：不详

公司总部：旧金山

所属行业：移动耳机

成立时间：1999年

员工人数：200人

    在战场上，战士们面临的一个难题是，在嘈杂的噪音中接听电话。因此，当斯坦福大学（Stanford）的两名毕业生亚历山大•阿塞利和候赛恩•拉赫曼带着降噪技术进入国防部（the Defense Department）时，国防部如获至宝。当然，这已是十年前的事了。今年，他们的Jawbone公司利用这一技术生产出的耳机（右），使电话使用者无需手扶，便可轻松接打电话，而且，这一技术还能降低街道和周围背景中嘈杂的噪音。耳机中的传感器感受脸颊的振动度，微型麦克风清理和消除背景中的噪音。目前，这家私营公司仍由当初的两名斯坦福大学毕业生经营。（该公司不对外公开财务数据。）今年7月，该公司获得了摩根大通资产管理公司（J.P. Morgan Asset Management）7，000万美元的注资。此前，它曾获得了风投公司霍洛维茨基金（Andreessen Horowitz）和红杉资本（Sequoia）的数轮投资。投资方希望Jawbone利用这些资金，生产更加智能的耳机。目前，这家公司生产最新产品可以通过耳机和声音，把智能手机连接到Twitter上。当然，Jawbone也面临着来自缤特力（Plantronic）等小公司和三星（Samsung）等大公司的激烈竞争。它面临的最大挑战在于：技术升级的速度要快于其他竞争对手。

    ——贝琪•费尔德曼

Jawbone

Revenue: Not available

Headquarters: San Francisco

Industry: Mobile headseats

Founded: 1999

Employees: 200

    One problem soldiers face is hearing their phones over the din of battle. When two Stanford grads, Alexander Asseily and Hosain Rahman, approached the Defense Department with their noise-canceling technology, the military jumped on it. That was about a decade ago. Today their company, Jawbone, has morphed that tech into headsets (right) that let phone users talk hands-free while cutting down on street buzz and other annoying background noise. A sensor in the Jawbone unit picks up vibrations in the cheeks, while tiny microphones sort out background noise and cancel it. The duo still run the private company. (It won't reveal financials.) In July the firm received a $70 million equity infusion from J.P. Morgan Asset Management, on top of earlier rounds from VC firms Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia. The money guys like that Jawbone headsets are getting smarter. The latest model lets you connect to Twitter on your smartphone, using your voice. Jawbone does face stiff competition from small players like Plantronics and giants like Samsung. Its big challenge is to keep the improvements coming faster than the other guy.

    --B.F.