明星创意总监之弊

    技术公司进军好莱坞听起来似乎是个不错的主意。虽然Facebook（FB）可能在喋喋不休地宣扬朋友和家庭谏言献策的力量，但是凯斯这样的明星则可以成为真正的意见领袖。她能影响到你在路易斯安那州嚼着口香糖的19岁侄女吗？不大可能。当然，如果明星们真能拿出好点子，那是再好不过的了。但是，聘请迈克•乔丹这样的运动员来代言耐克（Nike）鞋类产品要比让不怎么懂技术的明星在公司担任职务更靠谱。

    这也就意味着，不要对这些所谓的明星创意总监抱有太大的希望，甚至对代言人也是如此。反正我是不会。虽然我可能会喜欢Gaga，但是对于已步入暮年的宝丽来品牌和由Gaga设计的雷人眼镜并不怎么感兴趣。尽管我爱听Will.i.am的最新主打单曲Scream & Shout，但是我从来不去考虑我的MacBook Pro里用的是哪一款四核处理器。虽然我还可以容忍杰西卡•阿尔巴，但是我怀疑她晚上是否会痴迷地抱着她的Windows Phone手机入睡。（即便Windows Phone手机运行的是目前第二大最受欢迎的操作系统。）对于黑莓手机而言，我可能已经不在它的感召用户群之列，但是这家公司与凯斯脆弱的联盟并不会平添我目前对黑莓的爱憎，而且我觉得很多消费者都会有同感。

    这份担子得由黑莓自己来挑，而不是凯斯。而黑莓手机在美国智能手机市场的占有率已降到了不足3%。早期的评论显示，Z10还是不错的。《财富》杂志办公室人员试用的黑莓样机的确给人们留下了非常深刻的印象。甚至连《纽约时报》（The New York Times）的大卫•伯格都用“太好了”和“太棒了”这样的词来形容黑莓手机——可能用对了词。虽然这或许还不足以帮助黑莓收复已然丢失的市场份额，但至少就算这次黑莓败走麦城，失败的原因不会是：这款“孤注一掷”的手机硬件出了问题。(财富中文网)

    Tech companies tapping into Hollywood sounds like a smart idea. Facebook (FB) may crow on and on about the power of recommendations from friends and family, but a celebrity like Keys can genuinely be a universal influencer. Your 19-year-old gum popping niece in Louisiana? Not so much. And if the celebrity genuinely has good ideas, even better. But having an athlete like say, Michael Jordan represent a Nike (NKE) shoe line is more synergistic than giving a celebrity with little technical savvy a role at a company.

    Which is to say, don't expect too much out of these so-called celebrity creative directors, or even spokespeople. I don't. I may like Gaga, but care less about the aging Polaroid brand and the outlandish glasses she designs for them. I crank up Will.i.am's latest hit, Scream & Shout, but don't think twice about which quad-core processor hums inside my MacBook Pro. And I may tolerate Jessica Alba, but I doubt she falls asleep at night fervently cradling her Windows Phone. (Even if Windows Phone is the second-most loved mobile operating system out there right now.) With BlackBerry, I might fall outside the targeted demographic, but a tenuous partnership with Keys will not make me love or hate BlackBerry any more than I already do, and I expect many consumers out there to feel the same.

    The onus falls on BlackBerry itself, not Keys, which has seen its ownership of the U.S. smartphone market dwindle to less than 3%. Early reviews indicate the Z10 is solid. The sample phones knocking around Fortune's offices are very impressive in deed. Even The New York Times's David Pogue—probably correctly—used words like "brilliant" and "terrific" to describe it. That may not be enough to help BlackBerry recover lost market share, but at least if BlackBerry fails this time, it won't be because its "Hail Mary" included bad hardware.