Microsoft and the PC industry

　　微軟和個(gè)人電腦業(yè)

　　UNTIL August 23rd few people would have described Steve Ballmer as retiring. Microsoftschief executive has played both tiger and Tigger: snarling atApples gadgets; and bouncing, with a whoop, onto conference stages to extol hiscompanys wares. But retiring he is, within a year.

　　在8月23日之前很少人會(huì)想到史蒂夫鮑爾默會(huì)退休。微軟的首席執(zhí)行官即使老虎也是跳跳虎，與蘋果的產(chǎn)品叫板，但是結(jié)果卻沒什么威脅，在發(fā)布會(huì)上吹噓其產(chǎn)品。但是他將會(huì)在一年之內(nèi)退休。

　　Mr Ballmers departure is a surprise. He had announced a reorganisation of the companyonly in July and had hoped to oversee much of the change. Some celebrated his going:Microsofts share price went up by 7.3% on the day the news broke. Mr Ballmer has plenty ofcritics, although Microsofts revenues have trebled on his 13-year watch, to $77.8 billion inthe year to June, and profits have grown similarly, to $21.9 billion. The critics point at the riseof Apple and Google, and say Microsoft should have done betteror handed some of its $77billion of cash to shareholders. In an interview with the Seattle Times, Mr Ballmer deniedthat pressure from ValueAct, a fund with a small stake in the firm, helped push him out.

　　鮑爾默的離職是一個(gè)意外。就在七月他還宣布了公司的重組，希望能看到改變。一些人為他的離開叫好，微軟的股價(jià)在鮑爾默退休消息傳出的一天內(nèi)上漲了7.3%。盡管微軟的營收在鮑爾默的13年掌舵期間翻了三倍，達(dá)到了219億美元，但是他還是飽受批評(píng)。批評(píng)者瞄向蘋果和谷歌的崛起，表示微軟應(yīng)該比現(xiàn)在做的更好，或者將其770億現(xiàn)金部分返給股東。在一次來自西雅圖時(shí)報(bào)的采訪中，鮑爾默否認(rèn)了其迫于擁有微軟小部分股份的基金ValueAct而離開的說法。

　　Microsoft sits atop a pyramid of companies that prospered from the long boom in personalcomputers . The vast majority of PCs run on Microsofts Windows operating system andare powered by Intels processors. They bear the brands of Dell, Hewlett-Packard ,Lenovo and others, and nowadays are mostly made by Taiwanese contractors. The trouble isthat people increasingly prefer to buy mobile devices, made by Apple or running GooglesAndroid operating system. Sales of PCs have been falling at double-digit rates. From thepyramids apex to its base, companies are desperate both to refresh the PC and reducetheir reliance on it. Few are having much success.

　　微軟坐在受益于個(gè)人電腦長期繁榮的公司金字塔頂端。大部分的個(gè)人電腦跑的是微軟的視窗操作系統(tǒng)，用的是英特爾的處理器。它們支撐著戴爾，惠普，聯(lián)想和其他品牌，大部分是有臺(tái)灣代工廠完成的?，F(xiàn)在的麻煩是人們越來越多的傾向于蘋果生產(chǎn)或者運(yùn)行谷歌安卓操作系統(tǒng)的移動(dòng)設(shè)備。個(gè)人電腦銷量以兩位數(shù)的速率在下降。金字塔上的公司個(gè)個(gè)都昂著更新個(gè)人電腦，減少它們對(duì)個(gè)人電腦業(yè)務(wù)的依賴。幾乎沒有一家取得成功。

　　Frank Gillett of Forrester, a research firm, reckons that Windows share of the market forpersonal devices, once 95% or more, has dropped to around 30%. Microsoft respondedbelatedly with Windows 8, a new edition intended for touchscreen PCs and tablets launchedlast October, with variations for cheaper tablets and phones. Applications lie behind oblongtiles designed for fingertips rather than icons for mouse-clicks. Microsofts successful Xboxentertainment system was given the same look. The idea was that this uniform style wouldhelp to transfer Microsofts dominance of the desktop to mobile devices, and refresh thePC too.

　　調(diào)查公司Forrester的Frank Gillett認(rèn)為微軟一度站個(gè)人設(shè)備市場95%以上的視窗系統(tǒng)現(xiàn)在所占份額跌到了大概30%。微軟隨后的回應(yīng)是適用于觸屏個(gè)人電腦和平板電腦的視窗8系統(tǒng)，發(fā)布于去年十月，同時(shí)擁有廉價(jià)平板和電話的版本。應(yīng)用以矩形磁貼展示在桌面，為了使用手指觸控而不是鼠標(biāo)點(diǎn)擊。微軟成功的Xbox娛樂系統(tǒng)也使用同樣的外觀。微軟的想法是這種風(fēng)格上的統(tǒng)一會(huì)幫助微軟從桌面霸主轉(zhuǎn)變成移動(dòng)設(shè)備霸主，同時(shí)也更新個(gè)人電腦。

　　It has not happened yet. Few businesses were likely to hurry to buy Windows 8 anyway;some have yet to switch to its predecessor, Windows 7. Consumers have not taken to tileson PC screens: a new version, Windows 8.1, due in October, will make it easier for them tostick with the old look. Only now is a wide choice of touch PCs and tablet-PC hybridsappearing.

　　然而這個(gè)愿景還沒有實(shí)現(xiàn)。很少的企業(yè)急著想購買視窗8系統(tǒng)，有些甚至都沒有使用前代的視窗7系統(tǒng)。消費(fèi)者也沒有習(xí)慣筆記本屏幕上的磁貼，將于10月發(fā)布的最新版本的視窗8.1會(huì)讓消費(fèi)者更簡單的回到傳統(tǒng)桌面。現(xiàn)在有很多混合型平板電腦機(jī)型出現(xiàn)在市面上。

　　Microsofts own tablet, the Surface, has been a flop, forcing it to make a $900m write-off inits latest results. Windows phones, mostly made by Nokia of Finland, are far behind iPhonesand Android devices, with just 3.3% of the world market according to Gartner, anotherresearch firm. They have ousted BlackBerry from third place, but that is not saying much.

　　微軟自家的平板Surface是一款失敗的產(chǎn)品，到現(xiàn)在只銷售了9億美元。另一家調(diào)查公司Gartner表示，使用微軟操作系統(tǒng)的手機(jī)，主要由芬蘭的諾基亞生產(chǎn)，銷量遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)落后于iPhone和安卓設(shè)備，只占到手機(jī)世界市場的3.3%。它們已經(jīng)取代了黑莓第三的位置，但是也說明不了什么。

　　Next to Microsoft at the apex, Intel has also done poorly in smartphones and tablets, thoughit is striving to catch up and in June unveiled a new chip that it hopes will bring new zip toPCs. Among the PC-makers, HP pondered quitting altogether in 2011, then sacked the chiefexecutive who suggested it. Meg Whitman, his successor, chose to stay in, as well aspushing into services and software and shedding 27,000 jobs. She has plenty still to do: HPslatest results, on August 21st, sent a share-price rally into reverse. At Dell, which isscrapping for much the same ground, Michael Dell, the founder and chief executive, stillhopes to win a battle to take the company private. Of the leading PC-makers, Lenovo hascoped best. Its home market, China, is slowing but growing, and it is selling plenty ofsmartphones.

　　跟微軟地位相同的英特爾在智能手機(jī)和平板市場表現(xiàn)也不佳，盡管其在努力追趕，并于6月發(fā)布了一款新的處理器，希望給個(gè)人電腦注入新的力量。在所有的個(gè)人電腦生產(chǎn)商中，惠普在2011年曾考慮退出，然后解雇了提出這個(gè)想法的首席執(zhí)行官。繼任者M(jìn)eg Whitman選擇繼續(xù)留在個(gè)人電腦市場，進(jìn)軍服務(wù)和軟件行業(yè)，并減少了27000個(gè)職位。她仍然有很多事要做：惠普8月21日最新的財(cái)報(bào)顯示股價(jià)重新下跌。戴爾的境遇也非常相似，創(chuàng)始人兼首席執(zhí)行官邁克爾戴爾仍然希望讓公司私營化。在所有的個(gè)人電腦制造巨頭中，聯(lián)想的表現(xiàn)是最好的。在本土市場中國，聯(lián)想在緩慢增長，同時(shí)也銷售相當(dāng)部分的智能手機(jī)。

　　Despite its slow start in mobile, Microsoft remains hugely profitable. Its easy to getfocused only on Windows, says David Cearley of Gartner. The firm was quicker than its rivalsto provide cloud services to big companies. Although Googles free word-processor andspreadsheet threaten its Office software, Microsoft still has most of its customers, to whom itcan sell improved services online. The direction Mr Ballmer has set makes a lot of sense, MrCearley says. Had he set out sooner, he might have seen the journey through.

　　盡管在移動(dòng)市場開始較慢，但是微軟仍然有很大利潤。Gartner的David Cearley表示，專注于視窗操作系統(tǒng)很容易。微軟在給大公司提供云端服務(wù)上比其他對(duì)手快了不少。盡管谷歌免費(fèi)的文本處理軟件和表格處理軟件對(duì)微軟的Office構(gòu)成了威脅，但是微軟仍然擁有大部分顧客，微軟向其銷售改進(jìn)的在線服務(wù)。Cearley說鮑爾默規(guī)劃的方向起了很大的作用。盡管他就要離開，但是他可能看透了前景。

　　Microsoft and the PC industry

　　微軟和個(gè)人電腦業(yè)

　　UNTIL August 23rd few people would have described Steve Ballmer as retiring. Microsoftschief executive has played both tiger and Tigger: snarling atApples gadgets; and bouncing, with a whoop, onto conference stages to extol hiscompanys wares. But retiring he is, within a year.

　　在8月23日之前很少人會(huì)想到史蒂夫鮑爾默會(huì)退休。微軟的首席執(zhí)行官即使老虎也是跳跳虎，與蘋果的產(chǎn)品叫板，但是結(jié)果卻沒什么威脅，在發(fā)布會(huì)上吹噓其產(chǎn)品。但是他將會(huì)在一年之內(nèi)退休。

　　Mr Ballmers departure is a surprise. He had announced a reorganisation of the companyonly in July and had hoped to oversee much of the change. Some celebrated his going:Microsofts share price went up by 7.3% on the day the news broke. Mr Ballmer has plenty ofcritics, although Microsofts revenues have trebled on his 13-year watch, to $77.8 billion inthe year to June, and profits have grown similarly, to $21.9 billion. The critics point at the riseof Apple and Google, and say Microsoft should have done betteror handed some of its $77billion of cash to shareholders. In an interview with the Seattle Times, Mr Ballmer deniedthat pressure from ValueAct, a fund with a small stake in the firm, helped push him out.

　　鮑爾默的離職是一個(gè)意外。就在七月他還宣布了公司的重組，希望能看到改變。一些人為他的離開叫好，微軟的股價(jià)在鮑爾默退休消息傳出的一天內(nèi)上漲了7.3%。盡管微軟的營收在鮑爾默的13年掌舵期間翻了三倍，達(dá)到了219億美元，但是他還是飽受批評(píng)。批評(píng)者瞄向蘋果和谷歌的崛起，表示微軟應(yīng)該比現(xiàn)在做的更好，或者將其770億現(xiàn)金部分返給股東。在一次來自西雅圖時(shí)報(bào)的采訪中，鮑爾默否認(rèn)了其迫于擁有微軟小部分股份的基金ValueAct而離開的說法。

　　Microsoft sits atop a pyramid of companies that prospered from the long boom in personalcomputers . The vast majority of PCs run on Microsofts Windows operating system andare powered by Intels processors. They bear the brands of Dell, Hewlett-Packard ,Lenovo and others, and nowadays are mostly made by Taiwanese contractors. The trouble isthat people increasingly prefer to buy mobile devices, made by Apple or running GooglesAndroid operating system. Sales of PCs have been falling at double-digit rates. From thepyramids apex to its base, companies are desperate both to refresh the PC and reducetheir reliance on it. Few are having much success.

　　微軟坐在受益于個(gè)人電腦長期繁榮的公司金字塔頂端。大部分的個(gè)人電腦跑的是微軟的視窗操作系統(tǒng)，用的是英特爾的處理器。它們支撐著戴爾，惠普，聯(lián)想和其他品牌，大部分是有臺(tái)灣代工廠完成的?，F(xiàn)在的麻煩是人們越來越多的傾向于蘋果生產(chǎn)或者運(yùn)行谷歌安卓操作系統(tǒng)的移動(dòng)設(shè)備。個(gè)人電腦銷量以兩位數(shù)的速率在下降。金字塔上的公司個(gè)個(gè)都昂著更新個(gè)人電腦，減少它們對(duì)個(gè)人電腦業(yè)務(wù)的依賴。幾乎沒有一家取得成功。

　　Frank Gillett of Forrester, a research firm, reckons that Windows share of the market forpersonal devices, once 95% or more, has dropped to around 30%. Microsoft respondedbelatedly with Windows 8, a new edition intended for touchscreen PCs and tablets launchedlast October, with variations for cheaper tablets and phones. Applications lie behind oblongtiles designed for fingertips rather than icons for mouse-clicks. Microsofts successful Xboxentertainment system was given the same look. The idea was that this uniform style wouldhelp to transfer Microsofts dominance of the desktop to mobile devices, and refresh thePC too.

　　調(diào)查公司Forrester的Frank Gillett認(rèn)為微軟一度站個(gè)人設(shè)備市場95%以上的視窗系統(tǒng)現(xiàn)在所占份額跌到了大概30%。微軟隨后的回應(yīng)是適用于觸屏個(gè)人電腦和平板電腦的視窗8系統(tǒng)，發(fā)布于去年十月，同時(shí)擁有廉價(jià)平板和電話的版本。應(yīng)用以矩形磁貼展示在桌面，為了使用手指觸控而不是鼠標(biāo)點(diǎn)擊。微軟成功的Xbox娛樂系統(tǒng)也使用同樣的外觀。微軟的想法是這種風(fēng)格上的統(tǒng)一會(huì)幫助微軟從桌面霸主轉(zhuǎn)變成移動(dòng)設(shè)備霸主，同時(shí)也更新個(gè)人電腦。

　　It has not happened yet. Few businesses were likely to hurry to buy Windows 8 anyway;some have yet to switch to its predecessor, Windows 7. Consumers have not taken to tileson PC screens: a new version, Windows 8.1, due in October, will make it easier for them tostick with the old look. Only now is a wide choice of touch PCs and tablet-PC hybridsappearing.

　　然而這個(gè)愿景還沒有實(shí)現(xiàn)。很少的企業(yè)急著想購買視窗8系統(tǒng)，有些甚至都沒有使用前代的視窗7系統(tǒng)。消費(fèi)者也沒有習(xí)慣筆記本屏幕上的磁貼，將于10月發(fā)布的最新版本的視窗8.1會(huì)讓消費(fèi)者更簡單的回到傳統(tǒng)桌面。現(xiàn)在有很多混合型平板電腦機(jī)型出現(xiàn)在市面上。

　　Microsofts own tablet, the Surface, has been a flop, forcing it to make a $900m write-off inits latest results. Windows phones, mostly made by Nokia of Finland, are far behind iPhonesand Android devices, with just 3.3% of the world market according to Gartner, anotherresearch firm. They have ousted BlackBerry from third place, but that is not saying much.

　　微軟自家的平板Surface是一款失敗的產(chǎn)品，到現(xiàn)在只銷售了9億美元。另一家調(diào)查公司Gartner表示，使用微軟操作系統(tǒng)的手機(jī)，主要由芬蘭的諾基亞生產(chǎn)，銷量遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)落后于iPhone和安卓設(shè)備，只占到手機(jī)世界市場的3.3%。它們已經(jīng)取代了黑莓第三的位置，但是也說明不了什么。

　　Next to Microsoft at the apex, Intel has also done poorly in smartphones and tablets, thoughit is striving to catch up and in June unveiled a new chip that it hopes will bring new zip toPCs. Among the PC-makers, HP pondered quitting altogether in 2011, then sacked the chiefexecutive who suggested it. Meg Whitman, his successor, chose to stay in, as well aspushing into services and software and shedding 27,000 jobs. She has plenty still to do: HPslatest results, on August 21st, sent a share-price rally into reverse. At Dell, which isscrapping for much the same ground, Michael Dell, the founder and chief executive, stillhopes to win a battle to take the company private. Of the leading PC-makers, Lenovo hascoped best. Its home market, China, is slowing but growing, and it is selling plenty ofsmartphones.

　　跟微軟地位相同的英特爾在智能手機(jī)和平板市場表現(xiàn)也不佳，盡管其在努力追趕，并于6月發(fā)布了一款新的處理器，希望給個(gè)人電腦注入新的力量。在所有的個(gè)人電腦生產(chǎn)商中，惠普在2011年曾考慮退出，然后解雇了提出這個(gè)想法的首席執(zhí)行官。繼任者M(jìn)eg Whitman選擇繼續(xù)留在個(gè)人電腦市場，進(jìn)軍服務(wù)和軟件行業(yè)，并減少了27000個(gè)職位。她仍然有很多事要做：惠普8月21日最新的財(cái)報(bào)顯示股價(jià)重新下跌。戴爾的境遇也非常相似，創(chuàng)始人兼首席執(zhí)行官邁克爾戴爾仍然希望讓公司私營化。在所有的個(gè)人電腦制造巨頭中，聯(lián)想的表現(xiàn)是最好的。在本土市場中國，聯(lián)想在緩慢增長，同時(shí)也銷售相當(dāng)部分的智能手機(jī)。

　　Despite its slow start in mobile, Microsoft remains hugely profitable. Its easy to getfocused only on Windows, says David Cearley of Gartner. The firm was quicker than its rivalsto provide cloud services to big companies. Although Googles free word-processor andspreadsheet threaten its Office software, Microsoft still has most of its customers, to whom itcan sell improved services online. The direction Mr Ballmer has set makes a lot of sense, MrCearley says. Had he set out sooner, he might have seen the journey through.

　　盡管在移動(dòng)市場開始較慢，但是微軟仍然有很大利潤。Gartner的David Cearley表示，專注于視窗操作系統(tǒng)很容易。微軟在給大公司提供云端服務(wù)上比其他對(duì)手快了不少。盡管谷歌免費(fèi)的文本處理軟件和表格處理軟件對(duì)微軟的Office構(gòu)成了威脅，但是微軟仍然擁有大部分顧客，微軟向其銷售改進(jìn)的在線服務(wù)。Cearley說鮑爾默規(guī)劃的方向起了很大的作用。盡管他就要離開，但是他可能看透了前景。