" iPhone靠長相吃飯"的說法Jobs先生在另一世界一定大聲抗議: 因為 iPhone的軟體最有特色.....
iPhone靠長相吃飯非長久之計
蘋
果公司(Apple Inc. AAPL -0.66% )剛剛展示了iPhone煥然一新的操作系統外觀。但這款蘋果公司最重要的產品還需要更強大的軟件功能。蘋果的年度開發者大會週一拉開序幕﹐該公司發佈了蘋果移動設備操作系統iOS的一個遲到的新版本。
這個新版本來得並不算早。由於軟件方面過去幾年沒有太多變化﹐iPhone已經開始令人感到厭倦。最近﹐iPhone的市場份額正在被搭載谷歌(Google GOOG +1.19% )安卓(Android)手機操作系統的競爭對手奪走。
簡而言之﹐多虧了這些更新﹐iPhone又變得楚楚動人了。這是消費者期待蘋果產品具有的品質﹐也使蘋果能夠為產品設定較高的價格。比如﹐現在主屏上的圖標將懸浮於背景之上﹐從側面看會出現三維效果。
更重要的是還有大量功能上的絕妙改進。在已經打開的不同應用程序之間進行切換變得更加容易。日曆也更易於瀏覽和操作﹐與設備內置的相冊類似。
總地來說﹐升級了的操作系統看起來耳目一新又精密複雜。這印證了庫克(Tim Cook)的管理能力﹐因為新操作系統的外觀是他去年秋天實施的管理層人事調整的直接結果。他讓負責蘋果絕妙硬件設計的艾夫(Jonathan Ive)同時負責軟件的外觀和體驗。
蘋 果的不足之處在於不能為iPhone提供有用的服務。主屏看起來可能更好看了﹐但是蘋果的應用程序基本上還是原來的那些。其中很多應用程序並不很受用戶歡 迎﹐比如管理積分卡等物品的應用程序Passbook。如今﹐許多iPhone用戶乾脆用競爭對手提供的更流行的應用程序代替了這些應用程序：他們使用 WhatsApp即時通訊﹐用Google Maps來查找路線﹐用YouTube來觀看視頻。
不過﹐蘋果的確為其最受歡迎的應用程序帶來了一個重要的功能上的更新。現在iTunes將允許用戶創建自己的廣播站﹐其方式與Pandora Meida類似。這將增加iTunes的吸引力﹐尤其是越來越多的用戶發現流播音樂要比管理雜亂的mp3文件更容易。
全 新的外觀和iTunes的升級並不足以推高蘋果的股價。Sanford C. Bernstein的分析師薩科納吉(Toni Sacconaghi)說﹐從以往的經驗來看﹐使硬件的毛利率保持在高於50%的水平很難﹐iPhone的毛利率就高於50%。谷歌旗下摩托羅拉 (Motorola)等競爭者正尋求以更接近成本的價格銷售智能手機﹐蘋果要想確保設備使用的軟件和提供的服務遙遙領先﹐就必須採取更多行動。
ROLFE WINKLER
Apple Polishes Software for iPhones, iPads1
This week, Apple Inc. will try to regain its shine.
The company's annual developer conference, which begins Monday, looms as the latest crossroads as the technology icon struggles to maintain its trendsetter status since the death of Steve Jobs.
Apple's streak of game-changing devices has stalled and the iPhone and iPad seem stale, compared with new offerings from Samsung Electronics Co. and others. Software blunders, like Apple's widely panned mapping app, have raised doubts about the company's ability to build cutting-edge mobile services. Rivals like Google Inc. are colonizing the iPhone with their own software, bolstering use of their own rival offerings.
A thrust of Apple's counterattack on Monday is an overhauled mobile operating system for iPhones and iPads. The next version of its iOS software—now overseen by Apple's longtime hardware-design guru, Jonathan Ive—will have a new look, according to people involved in its development. Apple is expected to give developers an early version of the software this week and release it to consumers in the coming months.
The new design abandons Apple's longtime approach of designing icons and apps to resemble real-life objects, like address books and fabric, in favor of plain solid backgrounds and more white space, these people said.
Mr. Jobs pushed the original look to help people understand how to use their iPhones when the device came out in 2007, said people involved in the decision at the time. Mr. Jobs died in October 2011. Internally, employees have for years worried that the iPhone's look has become outdated and has a growing number of inconsistencies.
The new iOS will also include new ways to share photos and videos with other iPhone users, as well as other enhancements, these people said. Apple is also expected to announce a long-expected streaming-music service, new laptops and an update to its Mac operating system. (Please see related article on page B4.)
Whether the announcements can give Apple the sizzle it has lost remains to be seen. Investors and customers are lusting for big new products, like a television, which is being held up by discussions with cable companies and TV networks, as well as content companies, said people close to the talks.Apple wants to be able to offer a new type of service with the device that relies on cooperation from the networks and cable operators.
The next iPhone isn't expected until the fall, with the latest model expected to look a lot like the current one, other people familiar with the matter said.
Apple shares are off 37% from a high of $702.10 last September, trading at $441.81 on the Nasdaq Stock Market at 4 p.m. Friday.
At the D: All Things Digital conference in California last month, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook did little to dispel the concerns. He spoke about "incredible plans" for future products but repeatedly declined to go into more detail. Many attendees said they left the session saying they feared the company was short on big ideas. The Wall Street Journal and All Things Digital are both owned by News Corp .
Customers are also getting antsy. Nabil Sarih, a 33-year-old taxi driver from San Bruno, Calif., said he is satisfied with his iPhone—for now. But Mr. Sarih, who bought his first iPhone years ago, adds that he thinks the Samsung Galaxy phones his friends recently bought are much "cooler" because they have features like the ability to run several apps at once. "Apple's losing its edge," he said.
Samsung, of South Korea, widened its market share to about 33% of all smartphones shipped world-wide in the first quarter, up from 29% a year earlier. Apple had 17%, down from 23%.
Apple declined to comment.
The developer conference comes as many hardware features that Apple popularized, like high-resolution screens, have become commoditized. So, the company must step up its game in software.
Though the company has pioneered simple, easy-to-use programs, Apple has a poor track record with apps that rely on gathering and learning from data, like maps and its voice-activated assistant, Siri, according to current and former employees.
"Apple's going through growing pains in a more complex data world," one of the people said. "Google is a juggernaut and has a different culture."
For instance, Apple prefers to release software updates all at once in big updates. Google, on the other hand, tests and updates products repeatedly based on data about how customers are using the products.
Apple is aware of the issue, and Siri and the company's maps have improved. After a management shake-up in October, maps and Siri now fall to Senior Vice President Eddy Cue, who has been hiring more data experts, Apple employees said. He has also been deploying engineers acquired through the company's purchase last year of app search engine Chomp to help improve data practices across products, including maps, according to people close to the company.
But Apple is losing some of its grip over software used on the iPhone. The expected announcement of a new music-streaming service illustrates the threat.
The music-download service iTunes has long been one of the services keeping users glued to their iPhones. But that loyalty has been threatened as users shift to services like Pandora Media Inc. that allow them to stream music with ads or listen to an unlimited number of songs for a monthly fee.
Google recently announced its own streaming-music service for Android devices, and Amazon.com is in discussions with record labels about one too.
Apple has to "have the leading software in the leading categories," said Rajeev Chand, a managing director at boutique investment bank Rutberg & Co. He said music is a critical category given that nearly half of smartphone users listen to it on their phones.
"In the post-PC world, being front and center with the consumer" is paramount, he said.
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