許多中國人現在推遲購買蘋果設備
Apple’s flagship store in Wangfujing, a central shopping district in Beijing, is a hive of activity. But, unfortunately for the iPhone maker, most people are not there to buy.
坐落在北京市中心商業區王府井的蘋果(Apple)旗艦店人頭攢動，但對iPhone的製造商來說，遺憾的是，大多數人來這裏並不買手機。
Part of the problem may be short term, according to staff in the shop. Many Chinese are putting off buying an Apple device until the new iPhone 7 model comes out in September, says an employee, who adds that a lull in sales before a big launch is to be expected. “There’s no reason for any concern; when the new phone comes out sales will pick up,” he says.
店內員工表示，一部分問題可能是短期的。一位店員表示，許多中國人現在推遲購買蘋果設備，要等今年9月iPhone 7上市。他補充稱，在推出重大產品前銷售停滯是意料之中的。他說：“沒有理由擔憂；當新手機推出時，銷量就會上升。”
Liu Shan, a matronly woman guiding her teenage cousin around the store, is one of the few seemingly in the shop to buy a phone — but even she fails to show the sort of devoted Apple fandom that made China the company’s largest market outside the US.
劉珊（音譯）是一位看似家庭主婦的女士，她帶着十幾歲的表妹同來。她是店內似乎會買手機的少數人之一，但從她身上看不到“果粉”的那種癡迷——正是這些果粉讓中國成爲蘋果在美國以外的最大市場。
“She’s just a student,” she says of her youthful charge, flicking through a display of iPads, “so there’s no need to wait for an iPhone 7. We’re very pragmatic.”
瀏覽着iPad的展示畫面，劉珊談到自己的表妹時表示：“她只是個學生，因此沒有必要等待iPhone 7上市。我們非常務實。”
This lack of excitement points to the bigger problem Apple faces in China. A drop in revenues in the country by a third last quarter signalled to some that the company’s capacity to dazzle smartphone shoppers has been diminished amid stiffer competition from cheaper local competitors producing more technologically advanced devices.
這種缺乏熱情的表現反映出蘋果在中國面臨更大的問題。上季度蘋果在華收入下降三分之一，這讓一些人覺得，隨着來自產品物美價廉的本土廠商的競爭加劇，蘋果讓智能手機購買者迷戀的能力下降了。
The fall in sales should not have come as a surprise. Baidu, China’s biggest search engine, used a fall in search queries as a proxy for foot traffic to Apple stores to correctly predict a 23-34 per cent year-on-year fall in Apple’s quarterly revenues in China.
人們不應對蘋果銷售下降感到意外。中國最大的搜索引擎百度(Baidu)用搜索查詢數量的下降作爲蘋果商店客流量的晴雨表，正確地預測蘋果在華季度收入同比下降23%-34%。
Chinese smartphone users are no longer buying into the hype as they once did. When Apple first launched an iPhone in 2009, the smartphone was a status symbol for young Chinese middle class consumers.
中國智能手機用戶不再像過去那樣跟風購買。當2009年蘋果首次在中國銷售iPhone時，擁有一部iPhone是中國年輕的中產階級消費者有地位的象徵。
Apple consolidated its position with the release of several new phones aimed at the local market, briefly pushing the group to the top of China’s smartphone market last year.
蘋果針對中國市場發佈了數款新手機，鞏固了其地位，去年一度佔據中國智能手機市場份額的頭把交椅。
But Xiang Ligang, an expert on China’s telecommunications sector, says that Apple now faces a challenge in “keeping itself interesting” in China, namely that the group was “looking like a trend follower these days”.
但中國電信業專家項立剛表示，蘋果目前在中國面臨“保持自身有趣”的挑戰，也就是說該集團“最近看起來就像是潮流跟隨者”。
Crucially, local rivals have caught up with, and in some cases exceeded, the sort of technological advances that were once the calling card of the US tech group.
關鍵問題是，技術上的先進一度是這家美國科技公司的名片，但本土競爭對手已經迎頭趕上，在某些情況下還有所超越。
Rumours suggest that the forthcoming iPhone 7 will have a dual-lens camera, for example, but by the time it launches in September “it will look old”, says Mr Xiang.
項立剛表示，比如有傳言稱，即將發佈的iPhone 7將會有雙攝像頭，但到9月發佈時，“這種配置將會顯得過時”。
Many competitors already have dual-lens cameras on their newer phones, such as Huawei’s P9 launched in April, and Xiaomi’s Redmi Pro.
許多競爭對手已經在新款手機上配置了雙攝像頭，比如華爲(Huawei)今年4月推出的P9，以及小米(Xiaomi)推出的紅米Pro。
“The Chinese phonemakers are fast catching up with Apple in quality and performance, and the consumer mindset is also evolving,” says Mr Xiang. “Some users will always associate Apple with wealth and taste but, for a lot of users, sporting a Huawei or Oppo will no longer cause them to lose face.”
項立剛表示：“中國手機制造商迅速在品質和性能上追趕蘋果，消費者心態也在轉變。一些用戶始終會把蘋果與財富和品位聯繫在一起，但對許多用戶來說，拿着華爲或Oppo手機將不再讓他們感到丟臉。”
Getting China right is important for Apple; until the previous quarter, it was the company’s fastest-growing market.
對蘋果來說，搞定中國市場非常重要。截止上季度，中國還是蘋果增長最快的市場。
The drop in sales in China has added to Apple’s troubles as it faces a number of setbacks in the country, from a spurious copyright infringement lawsuit — alleging a Chinese company owned the iPhone trademark — to a ban on its iTunes video service.
蘋果在中國麻煩纏身，從假冒商標侵權訴訟——起訴一家擁有iPhone商標的中國公司——到iTunes視頻服務被禁，而在中國市場銷售下降更是雪上加霜。
But devices are core to its success. Apple has ceded ground to Huawei, as well as to relatively unknown brands such as Oppo and Vivo, who took the top three slots respectively in market share rankings for the second quarter, according to Canalys, the research group.
但設備是其成敗的關鍵。蘋果已經將部分市場份額拱手讓給華爲，以及Oppo和Vivo等相對不太出名的品牌。根據市場研究公司Canalys的數據，在今年二季度，華爲、Oppo和Vivo分別佔據中國市場份額前三甲位置。
Research by Counterpoint Technology, the market research firm, shows that Oppo passed Huawei in the second quarter to become the top-selling smartphone in China, with 22 per cent market share.
市場研究公司Counterpoint Technology的研究顯示，Oppo在二季度超過華爲，成爲中國市場最暢銷的智能手機，佔據22%的市場份額。
Oppo and Vivo, both largely unknown brands abroad, are both owned by BBK Electronics, based in the southern city of Dongguan.
在國外沒什麼名氣的Oppo和Vivo都隸屬總部位於東莞的步步高電子(BBK)旗下。
Apple in the previous quarter came fifth in China, accounting for a market share of 9 per cent, just ahead of Samsung, according to Canalys.
Canalys的數據顯示，蘋果上季度在中國市場排名第五，佔據9%的市場份額，僅領先於三星。
China’s smartphone market grew 3 per cent in the last quarter, according to the group.
該集團表示，中國智能手機市場規模在上季度增長3%。
Research from Piper Jaffray estimated that mainland China accounted for 15 per cent of Apple sales in the quarter, adding that part of the drop can be accounted for by an inventory drawdown and that the numbers “look worse than they are”.
Piper Jaffray在研究報告中估計，蘋果上季度銷售的15%來自中國內地。該機構補充稱，銷售下降在一定程度上可以說是去庫存造成的，而且數據“看起來比實際情況糟糕”。
Bryan Ma, analyst at IDC, the research firm, says Chinese consumers quickly tire of last year’s, or even last month’s, model. “One of Apple’s problems in China is its product refreshes . . . or lack thereof,” he says.
研究公司IDC的分析師馬伯遠(Bryan Ma)表示，中國消費者迅速厭煩了去年、乃至上月的機型。他說：“蘋果在中國的問題之一是產品更新換代……或者更新換代不力。”
The fickleness of the savvy Chinese consumer has already caused problems for rivals, which have also struggled to stay on top of the China smartphone market. Previous years have seen Samsung and Xiaomi topping the charts at some point only to fall back.
長了見識的中國消費者如今不再忠誠於某個品牌，這已經對競爭對手們造成了問題，後者也很難持續佔據中國智能手機市場的榜首位置。一度位列榜首的三星和小米在前幾年排名已經下降。
Crucial to staying relevant is to promise something new. Mr Ma says the worry for Apple is that supposedly leaked images of the iPhone 7 appear to show little difference from the iPhone 6S.
貼合市場需求的關鍵在於承諾推出新產品。馬伯遠表示，對蘋果來說，令人擔憂的是，從據說是iPhone 7泄露的照片看，這款手機的外觀似乎與iPhone 6S沒有多大不同。
“Apple needs to make sure that the next product looks noticeably different from the previous version, as the physical appearance is critical in market such as China where iPhones are viewed as status symbols”.
“蘋果需要確保下一款產品看起來與前款產品明顯不同，因爲在iPhones被視爲地位象徵的中國等市場，物理外觀非常重要。”
