Facebook手机或许只是黄粱一梦

    还记得乔恩鲁宾斯坦吗？

    他曾是斯蒂夫·乔布斯的工程主管。一开始是在NeXT公司（NeXT），然后去了苹果公司（Apple）。在苹果，他一手主持开发了iMac、PowerBook、Power Macintosh和iPod。而在公开表示对整合电话和多媒体播放器的想法嗤之以鼻几周后，他就“引退”江湖了。（他不无讥讽地反问：“有谁见过能煮咖啡的烤面包机吗？”。请参阅《愤怒的极客》。）

    引退三年后，鲁宾斯坦重出江湖。他雇了一帮苹果的工程师，打造了奔迈手机（Palm Pre）。2009年消费电子展上，这款触摸屏智能手机被评为展会最佳产品。但到了2010年，在《微电脑世界》杂志（PCWorld）评选的“2010年20大技术败笔”榜单上，它居然也榜上有名。

    此后，鲁宾斯坦再度引退。我之所以提起他，是因为看到尼克比尔顿本周一在《纽约时报》（New York Times）上发表的那篇报道。报道称，Facebook公司的马克扎克伯格正卯足劲打算推出一款智能手机，并且已经聘用了六、七位前苹果公司iPhone和iPad的工程师准备开工了。

    比尔顿在报道中写道：“一位曾在苹果工作、参与研发iPhone的工程师表示他已见过马克•扎克伯格，后者向他抛出了一大堆有关智能手机内部工作原理的问题。这位工程师表示，这听起来可不像是随随便便的好奇打探。扎克伯格问到了非常复杂的细节问题，包括这种手机使用什么类型的芯片。”

    奔迈和Facebook有个重大差别。奔迈在制造时运不济的Pre前已有15年制造经验，鲁宾斯坦则更为资深。而Facebook和扎克伯格在这方面却是一张白纸。

    很多评论者都不看好扎克伯格饱受争议的智能手机项目，认为它不会成功。但没人像《商业内幕》（Business Insider）的亨利•布拉吉那么尖刻。请阅读他的新作《如果Facebook执意硬闯手机市场，投资者就该尖叫撤离》。

    译者：清远

    Remember Jon Rubinstein?

    He headed up engineering for Steve Jobs, first at NeXT, then at Apple (AAPL), where he built the iMac, the PowerBook, the Power Macintosh and the iPod, before "retiring" a few weeks after publicly dissing the idea of merging a phone with a media player. ("Is there a toaster that also knows how to brew coffee?" he asked rhetorically. See Geeks with grudges.)

    Rubinstein came out of retirement three years later, hired a bunch of Apple engineers, and built the Palm Pre, a touchscreen smartphone that was named Best of Show at CES 2009 by CNET and made PCWorld's list of the 20 biggest tech failures of 2010.

    I bring up Rubinstein, who has since gone back into retirement, because according to Nick Bilton's report Monday in the New York Times, Facebook's (FB) Mark Zuckerberg is gearing up to build a smartphone and has begun by hiring more than half a dozen former Apple iPhone and iPad engineers.

    "One engineer who formerly worked at Apple and worked on the iPhone said he had met with Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, who then peppered him with questions about the inner workings of smartphones," Bilton writes. "It did not sound like idle intellectual curiosity, the engineer said; Mr. Zuckerberg asked about intricate details, including the types of chips used."

    There's one important difference between Palm and Facebook. Palm had 15 years manufacturing experience before it built the ill-fated Pre, and Rubinstein even more. Facebook and Zuckerberg have none.

    There are plenty of commentators who have tried to handicap the odds of Zuckerberg making a success of his rumored smartphone project, but none quite so trenchantly as Business Insider's Henry Blodget. See If Facebook Really Goes Into The Mobile Hardware Business, Investors Should Run Away Screaming.