SAN FRANCISCO — Last week, Timothy D. Cook, Apple's chief executive, stood on stage at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference without a new version of the iPhone or the iPad or some new device.
舊金山——上週，蘋果公司(Apple)首席執行官蒂莫西·D·庫克(Timothy D. Cook)在蘋果全球開發者大會(Worldwide Developers Conference)上亮相，但他卻沒有推出新款iPhone、 iPad，或者什麼新設備。
After showing off new laptop computers and a new, cylindrical Mac Pro, Mr. Cook and other Apple executives spent the rest of their two-hour keynote address discussing the features of Apple's latest mobile operating system, iOS 7. With the image of a flattened smartphone interface with thin typography on a screen in the background, Mr. Cook proudly noted, “This is the biggest change to iOS since the introduction of the iPhone.”
庫克和蘋果公司的其他高管在展示了新款筆記本電腦和一款新的圓柱形Mac Pro之後，在長達兩個小時的主旨演講中的剩餘部分，都是在講述蘋果最新的手機操作系統iOS 7的新功能。庫克驕傲地說道，“這是自iPhone推出以來，iOS發生的最大變化。”他背後的畫面是一個字體筆劃纖細、扁平化的智能手機界面。
How does he figure that?
他是怎麼想的？週一，蘋果公司CEO蒂莫西·D·庫克在舊金山舉行的蘋果全球開發者大會上。
Eric Risberg/Associated Press
週一，蘋果公司CEO蒂莫西·D·庫克在舊金山舉行的蘋果全球開發者大會上。
Mr. Cook's bold claim was based on something that is well understood in tech circles but is easily overlooked by consumers. It is the design of the software, far more than the look and feel of the device itself, that allows a company to leap over its competitors.
庫克大膽的說法，源於一件在技術圈子裡廣為人知，但卻很容易被消費者忽略的事情。與設備本身的外觀和感覺相比，軟件設計更能讓一家公司超越競爭對手。
Hardware features like processing speed or screen resolution or even how well a camera works offer only fleeting advantages in the constant competition among smartphone manufacturers. And with more than a billion smartphones in the world today, much of them with the same rectangular design meant to fit in your hand yet large enough to be used as a phone, it is hard to imagine a breakthrough in their general look.
在智能手機製造商的不斷競爭中，處理速度、屏幕分辨率，甚至是攝像頭性能優劣這樣的硬件功能所提供的優勢轉瞬即逝。今天世界上有10億部以上手機，為了適合人手抓握，同時又足夠大可以當做手機使用，它們當中很多都是相同的矩形設計，很難想像能在整體外形上實現突破。
But changes to the software are limited only by the skill and creativity of a company's engineers and designers and are not as easily mimicked since they appeal to softer notions like “experience” rather than speed or weight.
但是軟件上的改動，卻只受制於一個公司里工程師和設計人員的技能和創造性。而又因其註重像“體驗”這樣更軟性的概念，而不是速度或重量，所以更不容易被模仿。
Designers at Apple, Microsoft and Google appear to have been keenly aware of that when they worked on the latest versions of their mobile operating systems, experimenting with ways of making software that is unique yet as intuitive as a road sign.
蘋果公司、微軟公司(Microsoft)和谷歌公司(Google)的設計人員在設計最新的手機操作系統時，似乎已經敏銳地意識到了這一點，他們試驗了各種方式，嘗試將軟件做得既獨特，又像路標一樣直觀。
“I have my home, I have my office and I now I have my phone interface,” said Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. “When you turn a smartphone off it is an enigmatic monolith; it's the interface that not only animates it but gives it meaning.” Ms. Antonelli said she hoped to one day include iOS 7 in MoMA's design collection.
紐約現代藝術博物館（Museum of Modern Art，簡稱MoMA）建築和設計資深策展人寶拉·安東尼里(Paola Antonelli)稱，“我有自己的家，自己的辦公室，現在我又有了自己的手機界面。把手機關機之後，它就像一塊謎團般的石塊；界面不僅讓它變得生動還賦予了它意義。”安東尼里稱，她希望有一天能把iOS 7收進MoMA的設計收藏品中。
Apple is making some stark changes to the appearance of its software with the latest operating system, which will be available to consumers in the fall. Jonathan Ive, senior vice president for industrial design at Apple and the executive responsible for the new look, has done away with design metaphors like a wood grain bookshelf for the phone's virtual newsstand. The new look also eliminates borders. It doesn't sound like much, but that allows apps to stretch across the screen, which makes the phone feel larger. By doing away with shadows and dark colors, the design makes the phone's screen feel brighter, too.
蘋果最新版的操作系統給其軟件外觀帶來了一些顯著的變化，該操作系統將在今年秋天正式面向消費者發布。蘋果公司負責工業設計的高級副總裁，也是負責新外觀的高管喬納森·艾夫(Jonathan Ive)已經摒棄了過去iPhone的虛擬報刊亭上使用的木紋書架那樣的設計比喻。新設計還取消了邊框，聽上去似乎改變不大，但卻得以讓應用在屏幕拉伸開，使手機在感覺上變大一點。新設計還摒棄了陰影和深色調，手機屏幕也會因此而顯得更亮。
Interestingly, until this update, among the digital technology community, Apple was losing its reputation for cutting-edge design as competitors like Microsoft experimented.
有趣的是，在這次升級之前，蘋果公司在數字技術圈子裡正在逐漸失去自己設計領先的名譽，就如同微軟公司這樣的競爭對手曾經歷的那樣。
“From a design standpoint, Apple's interface became pretty cheesy and predictable,” said Yves Béhar, the founder of Fuseproject, a San Francisco design agency that helped create the low-cost One Laptop Per Child PC and the Jawbone Up wristband health-monitoring device . “It lacked strength and vision.”
舊金山設計公司Fuseproject的創始人伊夫·貝阿爾(Yves Béhar)稱，“從設計角度來看，蘋果的界面變得很俗氣，沒什麼新意。它缺少力量和想像力。”Fuseproject公司幫助打造了低成本的“每童一電腦”(One Laptop Per Child)計劃的電腦，以及健康監測設備Jawbone公司的Up手環。
Microsoft, which was regularly criticized in recent years for the staid look of its software, has been pushing the design boundaries as it tries to play catch-up in smartphones. In a recent blog post on the company's Web site, Steve Clayton, a design manager at Microsoft, wrote that company executives finally understood about three years ago that the look of the software was just as important as what the device could do.
最近幾年，微軟公司常常因其軟件保守的設計而備受批評，但就在它試圖在智能手機領域追趕潮流時，它已開始努力突破設計上的局限。該公司的設計經理史蒂夫·克萊頓(Steve Clayton)最近在公司網站上發表了一篇博客文章，他說該公司的高管在三年前終於意識到，軟件的外觀和設備的性能一樣重要。
The new appearance of the company's operating system for mobile devices, Windows Phone 7, consists of an array of flat, colorful squares that can be easily moved around on the screen. Though when that tiles-based look was also applied to the Windows 8 PC operating system, some longtime customers complained it was too drastic.
該公司移動設備Windows Phone 7操作系統的新外觀由一系列扁平多彩的方塊組成，它們能夠輕易地在屏幕上移動。但是當這種像磁貼一樣的外觀設計應用在Windows 8電腦操作系統上時，一些長期用戶卻抱怨變化太大。
But it has been good for the mobile business.
然而這種設計對於手機業務來說卻反應不錯。
In the first quarter of 2013, Windows Phone nudged Blackberry to become the third most popular phone operating system globally, according to a report by IDC, a market research firm.
根據市場研究公司IDC的一份報導，2013年第一季度，Windows手機戰勝黑莓(Blackberry)手機，成為全球第三大最受歡迎的手機操作系統。
Mr. Béhar said a good software design would always help sell more hardware.
貝阿爾稱，一款好的軟件設計總會有助於銷售更多硬件產品。
“We are in an era where the 30-second TV ad doesn't count anymore,” he said. “The product — the smartphone — is its own form of advertising today and a good experience, where people want to spend more time with the product, is what people see.”
他說，“在我們所處的時代，30秒鐘的電視廣告已沒有太大價值。如今，產品本身，比如一部手機，就是一種形式的廣告，也是一種好的體驗。今天這個時代，人們願意花更多時間體驗產品，你能看得到的東西。”翻譯：張亮亮
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