【英文报刊翻译080324】锐意创新:师从苹果

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Innovation:Lessons from Apple 锐意创新:师从苹果
Jun 7th 2007
From The Economist print edition

Not invented here, and very welcome 非我所创，广受欢迎

The first is that innovation can come from without as well as within. Apple is widely assumed to be an innovator in the tradition of Thomas Edison or Bell Laboratories, locking its engineers away to cook up new ideas and basing products on their moments of inspiration. In fact, its real skill lies in stitching together its own ideas with technologies from outside and then wrapping the results in elegant software and stylish design. The idea for the iPod, for example, was originally dreamt up by a consultant whom Apple hired to run the project. It was assembled by combining off-the-shelf parts with in-house ingredients such as its distinctive, easily used system of controls. And it was designed to work closely with Apple's iTunes jukebox software, which was also bought in and then overhauled and improved. Apple is, in short, an orchestrator and integrator of technologies, unafraid to bring in ideas from outside but always adding its own twists.

首先，创新可来自公司内外。人们普遍认为，苹果是接班托马斯•爱迪生和贝尔实验室的创新者，它把设计者关在一个地方想出新点子，依靠灵感的迸发制造产品。事实上，苹果的真功夫是把自己的创意和外部的科技结合起来，再利用一流的软件和漂亮的设计包装成品。譬如，iPod的创意最初是一个顾问想出来的，苹果于是雇他管理整个项目。iPod由库存的零部件和苹果本来就有的要素、如独特简便的操控系统组合而成。苹果设计的iPod与苹果iTune自动唱机软件配套使用，iTune也是被买进来之后彻底革新和改进的。简言之，苹果是勇于引进创意、但始终把自己的花样加入这些创意的、协调和综合多种技术的大家。

This approach, known as "network innovation", is not limited to electronics. It has also been embraced by companies such as Procter & Gamble, BT and several drugs giants, all of which have realised the power of admitting that not all good ideas start at home. Making network innovation work involves cultivating contacts with start-ups and academic researchers, constantly scouting for new ideas and ensuring that engineers do not fall prey to "not invented here" syndrome, which always values in-house ideas over those from outside.

Second, Apple illustrates the importance of designing new products around the needs of the user, not the demands of the technology. Too many technology firms think that clever innards are enough to sell their products, resulting in gizmos designed by engineers for engineers. Apple has consistently combined clever technology with simplicity and ease of use. The iPod was not the first digital-music player, but it was the first to make transferring and organising music, and buying it online, easy enough for almost anyone to have a go. Similarly, the iPhone is not the first mobile phone to incorporate a music-player, web browser or e-mail software. But most existing "smartphones" require you to be pretty smart to use them.

第二，苹果的实例阐明了一个重要性--以用户的要求为纲设计新产品，而非技术的要求。太多的技术公司认为，构思够聪明就足以把产品卖出去，导致了设计者创造出的小发明只有其他设计者才用得上。苹果不断地将巧妙的技术和简单易用相结合。iPod并非第一台数字音乐播放器，但却在传输、编组和在线购买音乐方面开了先河，且非常简单几乎人人都能使用。与此类似，iPhone并非首台整合音乐播放器、网络浏览器或电子邮件软件的移动电话。但现有的大多数"智能手机"需要用户也足够"智能"才会使用。
Apple is not alone in its pursuit of simplicity. Philips, a Dutch electronics giant, is trying a similar approach. Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, perhaps the most Jobsian of Europe's geeks, took an existing but fiddly technology, internet telephony, to a mass audience by making it simple, with Skype; they hope to do the same for internet television. But too few technology firms see "ease of use" as an end in itself.

苹果并不是唯一一个追求简单的公司。荷兰电器巨头飞利浦集团也在尝试类似的方法。Niklas Zennström 和Janus Friis或许是欧洲怪人里最具乔布斯风格的，他们将一种现有的但细致难以操作的互联网电话技术通过Skype软件简化后向大众推广。他们希望在网络电视方面如法炮制。然而，太少技术公司把"简便易用"当回事儿了。