蘋果iPhone 5c輕騎兵挺進低端市場

????蘋果（Apple）一直都是計算與電子設備行業的寶馬（BMW）、蒂凡尼(Tiffany)和四季酒店（Four Seasons）。你可以用任何奢華的比喻來形容它。但在周二，蘋果卻公開了它的雪佛蘭（Chevrolet）策略。

????蘋果發布會是值得關注的大事?！疚沂遣皇沁€應該加上杰西潘尼公司（J.C. Penney）和萬豪國際集團（Marriott）的萬怡套房酒店（Courtyard Suites）？當然?！?/p>

????塑料外殼的iPhone 5c在美國99美元起售，預示著蘋果正在積極向低端智能手機市場進軍。這是一個大膽的舉措，旨在吸引新的消費者群體。這個策略充分延續了蘋果現有產品線自我吞噬的特點。

????自我吞噬是蘋果的標志。它對iPod就采取了無情的替換策略，而iPhone的出現又使得iPod突然放緩增長，最后陷入負增長。蘋果對低價策略也不陌生。iPod Shuffle最初的價格便非常低廉，而且iTunes上還有許多僅售99美分的歌曲。

????不過，維護高端市場的同時進軍低端大眾市場卻是一種全新的策略。蘋果用大量時間介紹了它的最新款iPhone 5s手機——智能手機中的寶馬?？纯刺O果在它最出色的手機上配置的超強處理器，大家肯定會覺得這個比喻非常貼切。iPhone 5s提供包括金色在內的三種顏色。低端iPhone 5c手機使用聚碳酸酯制成，蘋果設計總監喬尼?艾維形容聚碳酸酯是一種“不掉價的塑料”。這個型號的推出意味著只要能買得起智能手機的消費者幾乎都能買得起iPhone。美國市場自不必提，在中國與印度等發展中國家，iPhone將變得更加流行。

????“等一下！”你或許正在想。蘋果是要執行市場滲透策略，還是真的有傳說中的新武器？

????蘋果公司這次確實推出了新指紋識別技術，手機用戶可以不必輸入密碼，只需按下Home鍵就可確定身份。iPhone 5s的攝像頭技術會令攝影愛好者大吃一驚，攝影新手會為它更出色的拍攝效果和更便捷的照片搜索驚艷不已。蘋果表示，它的聲控搜索服務Siri可以找到更多東西。這項進步很受歡迎。

????所以，這是蘋果的又一次漸進式更新，而不是徹底的突破。但蘋果還有時間。畢竟，不可能每個季度都能上演奇跡，盡管蘋果是一家成功的大公司。如果大膽冒進意味著心甘情愿放棄之前的標準，那么還是順其自然吧。

????昨天舉行發布會的蘋果Town Hall禮堂的墻壁上有一句史蒂夫?喬布斯的名言：“如果你取得了一次精彩的成功，那你應該再接再厲，再創輝煌。不要念念不忘之前的成功，要想想接下來該做什么?！?/p>

????相反，我們很多人都對蘋果過去的輝煌念念不忘。不管蘋果公司是否也是如此，至少它肯定在思考接下來該做什么，同時正在為之付出努力。這本身就是一件很好的事情。（財富中文網）

????譯者：劉進龍/汪皓??

????Choose your luxury metaphor, but Apple (AAPL) always has been the BMW, the Tiffany, the Four Seasons of the computing and electronics industry. On Tuesday, it unveiled its Chevrolet strategy.

????That's a big deal, a moment worth noting. (Should I have added J.C. Penney (JCP) and Courtyard Suites by Marriott (MAR) too? Yes, for sure.)

????By offering an iPhone in the U.S. starting at $99 -- the iPhone 5c made of PLASTIC -- Apple is moving aggressively into the low end of smartphones. It's a bold strategy intended to attract a whole new class of consumers. The strategy fully envisions and anticipates the self-cannibalization of Apple's existing product line.

????Self-cannibalization is an Apple hallmark. The company engaged in a brutal replacement strategy on the iPod, which itself was plunged into slow and then negative growth mode by the iPhone. Apple also knows about low prices. The iPod Shuffle was inexpensive from the beginning, as were 99-cent songs on iTunes.

????But going for the low-end mass market while maintaining the high-end is new. Apple spent plenty of time showing its newest BMW of a smartphone, the 5s. The metaphor isn't as loopy as its sounds, given the powerful engine of a microprocessor Apple showed for its top-of-line phone, whose three-color offerings include gold. The low-end model, made of a polycarbonate that design chief Jony Ive referred to as "unapologetically plastic," will make an iPhone available to absolutely everyone who can buy a smartphone. That will be true in the U.S. and even more so in developing countries like China and India.

????"Wait a second," you might be thinking. Is Apple about market-penetration strategies, or is it about fabulous new stuff?

????Well, the company did show its new fingerprint authentication technology, which will enable iPhone users to skip a password and identify themselves to their phone simply by pressing the home button. The camera technology in the iPhone 5s will wow shutterbugs and even more so photography neophytes who will just appreciate taking better photos and being able to find them more easily. Apple suggests that its voice-activated search service Siri now finds more things than before. That's a welcome change.

????So, once again, there is incrementalism from Apple, not radical breakthroughs. But there's time for that. Miracles don't happen on a quarterly schedule. Apple is a business, and a big and successful one at that. If boldness now is a willingness to depart from previous norms, so be it.

????A quote from Steve Jobs appears on the wall of Apple's Town Hall auditorium building, where Tuesday's event took place. "If you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long," it reads. "Just figure out what's next."

????Most of us tend to dwell too long on the "pretty good" things that Apple has done in the past. Whether or not Apple does too, it certainly is trying to figure out what's next and acting on its findings. That's pretty good too.