“爲敵意而生”的iPhone
Some of the greatest gadgets start with a flash of inspiration by a designer. Others are the result of a technological breakthrough. Apple’s iPhone, which went on sale 10 years ago this week, began with a grudge.
一些最偉大的產品始於設計師一閃而過的靈感。其他則是技術突破的結果。在10年前的本週開始銷售的蘋果(Apple) iPhone始於怨恨。“It began because Steve hated this guy at Microsoft,” said Scott Forstall, Apple’s former software chief and one of the top deputies to the company’s late co-founder Steve Jobs.
已故聯合創始人史蒂夫?喬布斯(Steve Jobs)的高級副手之一、蘋果前首席軟件師斯科特?福斯托(Scott Forstall)表示：“之所以開始設計iPhone，是因爲史蒂夫討厭微軟(Microsoft)的這個傢伙”。The touchscreen era began 10 years ago on June 29, 2007, when the iPhone first went on sale, and Mr Forstall recounted the animosity behind its creation at an event at the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley last week, his first such interview since leaving Apple in 2012.
觸摸屏時代開始於10年前的2007年6月29日，當時蘋果剛剛開始銷售iPhone。福斯托上週在硅谷“計算機歷史博物館”(Computer History Museum)舉行的一場活動中，談到了iPhone問世背後的這種敵意，這是他自2012年離開蘋果後首次接受此類採訪。
Before the iPhone was a phone, it was a tablet and the touchscreen technology that would later find its way into the iPad began as a secret research project commissioned by Jobs, Mr Forstall recalled.
福斯托回憶道，iPhone在成爲電話之前是被作爲平板電腦研究的，後來運用於iPad的觸摸屏技術最初是喬布斯授權的祕密研究項目。The offending Microsoft employee, who was a friend of a friend of Jobs, had been bragging about the software company’s new tablet computer, which used a stylus for input. “Anytime Steve had any social interaction with that guy, he came back just pissed off,” he said.
冒犯喬布斯的微軟員工是喬布斯的朋友的朋友，他一直吹噓微軟開發的利用手寫筆輸入的新的平板電腦。福斯托說：“喬布斯每次在社交場合與這個人接觸之後，回來都是怒氣衝衝。”After one such weekend encounter, Jobs arrived at Apple on a Monday morning fuming: “Let’s show them how it’s really done.”
在某個週末會面之後，喬布斯週一早上趕到蘋果公司時氣急敗壞地說道：“讓我們做給他看，這些產品應該是怎樣的。”Microsoft were “idiots”, Mr Forstall recalled Jobs saying. “You don’t use a stylus?.?.?.?You are born with 10 styluses.”
福斯托回憶道，喬布斯說，微軟是“白癡”，“你不用使用手寫筆……我們天生就有10支手寫筆。”Apple went on to sell more than 1bn iPhones, making it one of the most successful consumer products of all time and propelling the company to record-breaking profits. Mobile industry commentator Horace Dediu has estimated that iOS devices and apps will together have generated over $1tn in revenues for Apple by the end of 2017.
自那以來蘋果銷售了逾10億部iPhone，使其成爲歷史上最爲成功的消費產品之一，並推動公司實現創紀錄的利潤。移動行業分析師霍勒斯?德迪烏(Horace Dediu)估計，到2017年年底，iOS設備及應用加起來將會爲蘋果貢獻逾1萬億美元的累計收入。Yet despite the urgency with which Jobs instigated the development of what would become the iPhone’s multi-touch technology, the project languished for several years.
然而，儘管喬布斯敦促儘快研發後來運用於iPhone的多觸點技術，但該項目仍在數年裏一籌莫展。It was revived only when Jobs, looking to head off looming competition to the then-dominant iPod music player, suggested touch technology would make mobile phones less “angsty” to use.
只有在當時佔據主導地位的iPod音樂播放器面臨競爭、而喬布斯尋求反擊的時候——他提出，觸摸技術將使手機用起來不太“讓人焦慮”——後，該項目才形成勢頭。In the mid-2000s, when the Motorola Razr became a bestseller, traditional phone manufacturers such as Nokia were being “incremental”, said Hugo Fiennes, another former Apple engineer who spoke at the Computer History Museum’s event. “At Apple there was no holding back.”
另一位蘋果前工程師雨果?費因斯(Hugo Fiennes)在計算機歷史博物館的會議上表示，在2005年前後摩托羅拉(Motorola)的“剃刀”(Razr)熱銷的時候，諾基亞(Nokia)等傳統的手機制造商表現出“步子太慢”，而那時“蘋果已全力投入新產品的研發”。Development of the iPhone was famously secretive. Employees working on “Project Purple” were not even allowed to tell their families what they were creating. Teams working on different elements of the device were unaware of what each other were doing. Mr Fiennes, who was part of the team working on multitouch hardware, said the first time he saw the resulting software features such as “pinch to zoom” was when Jobs unveiled it at the iPhone’s launch event.
iPhone的研發工作隱祕得出名。參與“紫色項目”的員工甚至不被允許告訴家人他們在鼓搗什麼新產品。從事iPhone部件研發的各小組彼此不知道別人在做什麼。費因斯是從事多點觸控硬件研發團隊的一員，他說，他第一次看到這種硬件帶來的“捏拉縮放”等軟件功能，是喬布斯在iPhone發佈會上展示的時候。Mr Forstall had no experience in telecoms before working on the project and had never sent a text message before doing so on an iPhone. Yet despite this, Apple considered buying its own mobile spectrum or becoming a “virtual” mobile network operator, reselling another telecoms provider’s services under its brand, he said. Ultimately the company decided to partner with AT&T to distribute the device.
福斯托在從事iPhone項目之前沒有任何電信行業的經驗，在iPhone誕生前甚至從未發過短信。然而他說，儘管如此，蘋果曾考慮收購移動通信頻譜，或者成爲一家“虛擬”移動網絡運營商，在自己的品牌下轉賣另一家電信提供商的服務。最終，該公司決定與AT&T合作來售賣iPhone。“Of course [all the secrecy] was an impediment,” said Nitin Ganatra, who was director of engineering for iOS applications until he left Apple in 2012. “But at the same time, there was so much value there as well, by having this secret?.?.?.?Nobody knew what was coming.”
在2012年離開蘋果前擔任iOS應用程序工程總監的尼廷?加納特拉(Nitin Ganatra)表示：“當然（保密）是障礙。但與此同時，保密也是很有價值的……沒有人知道我們會推出什麼全新產品。”
The iPhone’s timing turned out to be good, with internet services such as YouTube and Google Maps on the rise and the emergence of affordable mobile data contracts. The iPhone really began to fulfil its potential in 2008 when, despite Jobs’ initial reluctance to allow software from outside Apple to run on the device, the App Store made its debut.
事實證明，iPhone發佈恰逢其時，YouTube和谷歌地圖(Google Maps)等互聯網服務日益增多，同時還出現了價格適中的移動數據合同。2008年App Store開張後，iPhone真正開始實現其潛力，儘管喬布斯最初不願允許蘋果以外的軟件在iPhone上運行。The iPhone redefined what a mobile device could do, prompting countless imitators (and more than a few lawsuits by Apple as a result). The iPhone now accounts for about two-thirds of Apple’s revenues and an even larger share of the mobile industry's entire profits.
iPhone重新定義了手機的功能，吸引了不計其數的模仿者（結果是蘋果提起了好幾起訴訟）。iPhone現在爲蘋果貢獻了大約三分之二的收入，在整個移動設備行業的利潤份額甚至更大。While Mr Forstall admitted that pricing “was a challenge” — the upfront cost of the device had to be cut by $200 just a few months after it went on sale — he never had any doubt it would be “huge”.
儘管福斯托承認，定價“是一個挑戰”——iPhone在上市幾個月後，就不得不減價200美元——但他從未懷疑iPhone將成爲“轟動產品”。“Using it, it never felt like work,” he said. “And I knew, this is it — everything is going to behave this way.”
他說：“使用它從不讓人感覺像是工作，我當時就明白，這就是理想境界——一切產品都會像這樣。”
