本文摘要：Some of the greatest gadgets start with a flash of inspiration by a designer. Others are the result of a technological breakthrough. Apple’s iPhone, which went on sale 10 years ago this week, began with a grudge.一些最最出色的产品始自设计师一闪而过的启发。

Some of the greatest gadgets start with a flash of inspiration by a designer. Others are the result of a technological breakthrough. Apple’s iPhone, which went on sale 10 years ago this week, began with a grudge.一些最最出色的产品始自设计师一闪而过的启发。其他则是技术突破的结果。

在10年前的本周开始销售的苹果(Apple) iPhone始自愤恨。“It began because Steve hated this guy at Microsoft,” said Scott Forstall, Apple’s former software chief and one of the top deputies to the company’s late co-founder Steve Jobs.胞弟牵头创始人史蒂夫?乔布斯(Steve Jobs)的高级副手之一、苹果前首席软件师斯科特?福斯托(Scott Forstall)回应：“之所以开始设计iPhone，是因为史蒂夫喜欢微软公司(Microsoft)的这个家伙”。

The touchscreen era began 10 years ago on June 29, 2007, when the iPhone first went on sale, and Mr Forstall recounted the animosity behind its creation at an event at the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley last week, his first such interview since leaving Apple in 2012.触摸屏时代开始于10年前的2007年6月29日，当时苹果刚刚开始销售iPhone。福斯托上周在硅谷“计算机历史博物馆”(Computer History Museum)举办的一场活动中，谈及了iPhone问世背后的这种敌意，这是他自2012年离开了苹果后首次拒绝接受此类专访。Before the iPhone was a phone, it was a tablet and the touchscreen technology that would later find its way into the iPad began as a secret research project commissioned by Jobs, Mr Forstall recalled.福斯托回想道，iPhone在沦为电话之前是被作为平板电脑研究的，后来运用于iPad的触摸屏技术最初是乔布斯许可的秘密研究项目。The offending Microsoft employee, who was a friend of a friend of Jobs, had been bragging about the software company’s new tablet computer, which used a stylus for input. “Anytime Steve had any social interaction with that guy, he came back just pissed off,” he said.侮辱乔布斯的微软公司员工是乔布斯的朋友的朋友，他仍然撒谎微软公司研发的利用手写笔输出的新的平板电脑。

福斯托说道：“乔布斯每次在社交场合与这个人认识之后，回去都是怒气冲冲。”After one such weekend encounter, Jobs arrived at Apple on a Monday morning fuming: “Let’s show them how it’s really done.”在某个周末会面之后，乔布斯周一早上赶往苹果公司时气急败坏地说：“让我们做到给他看，这些产品应当是怎样的。”Microsoft were “idiots”, Mr Forstall recalled Jobs saying. “You don’t use a stylus?.?.?.?You are born with 10 styluses.”福斯托回想道，乔布斯说道，微软公司是“白痴”，“你不必用于手写笔……我们天生就有10支手写笔。”Apple went on to sell more than 1bn iPhones, making it one of the most successful consumer products of all time and propelling the company to record-breaking profits. Mobile industry commentator Horace Dediu has estimated that iOS devices and apps will together have generated over $1tn in revenues for Apple by the end of 2017.自那以来苹果销售了逾10亿部iPhone，使其沦为历史上尤为顺利的消费产品之一，并推展公司构建创纪录的利润。

移动行业分析师霍勒斯?德迪乌(Horace Dediu)估算，到2017年年底，iOS设备及应用于特一起将不会为苹果贡献逾1万亿美元的总计收益。Yet despite the urgency with which Jobs instigated the development of what would become the iPhone’s multi-touch technology, the project languished for several years.然而，尽管乔布斯呼吁尽早研发后来运用于iPhone的多触点技术，但该项目仍在数年里一筹莫展。It was revived only when Jobs, looking to head off looming competition to the then-dominant iPod music player, suggested touch technology would make mobile phones less “angsty” to use.只有在当时占有主导地位的iPod音乐播放器面对竞争、而乔布斯谋求反攻的时候——他明确提出，触碰技术将使手机用一起不过于“让人情绪”——后，该项目才构成势头。

In the mid-2000s, when the Motorola Razr became a bestseller, traditional phone manufacturers such as Nokia were being “incremental”, said Hugo Fiennes, another former Apple engineer who spoke at the Computer History Museum’s event. “At Apple there was no holding back.”另一位苹果前工程师雨果?费因斯(Hugo Fiennes)在计算机历史博物馆的会议上回应，在2005年前后摩托罗拉(Motorola)的“剃刀”(Razr)热卖的时候，诺基亚(Nokia)等传统的手机制造商展现出出有“步子太快”，而那时“苹果已全力投放新产品的研发”。Development of the iPhone was famously secretive. Employees working on “Project Purple” were not even allowed to tell their families what they were creating. Teams working on different elements of the device were unaware of what each other were doing. Mr Fiennes, who was part of the team working on multitouch hardware, said the first time he saw the resulting software features such as “pinch to zoom” was when Jobs unveiled it at the iPhone’s launch event.iPhone的研发工作不为人知得有名。

参予“紫色项目”的员工甚至不被容许告诉他家人他们在鼓捣什么新产品。专门从事iPhone部件研发的各小组彼此不告诉别人在做到什么。费因斯是专门从事多点触触硬件研发团队的一员，他说道，他第一次看见这种硬件带给的“剪刀纳图形”等软件功能，是乔布斯在iPhone发布会上展出的时候。Mr Forstall had no experience in telecoms before working on the project and had never sent a text message before doing so on an iPhone. Yet despite this, Apple considered buying its own mobile spectrum or becoming a “virtual” mobile network operator, reselling another telecoms provider’s services under its brand, he said. Ultimately the company decided to partner with ATT to distribute the device.福斯托在专门从事iPhone项目之前没任何电信行业的经验，在iPhone问世前甚至未曾放过短信。

然而他说道，尽管如此，苹果曾考虑到并购移动通信频谱，或者沦为一家“虚拟世界”移动网络运营商，在自己的品牌下转手另一家电信提供商的服务。最后，该公司要求与ATT合作来贩卖iPhone。

“Of course [all the secrecy] was an impediment,” said Nitin Ganatra, who was director of engineering for iOS applications until he left Apple in 2012. “But at the same time, there was so much value there as well, by having this secret?.?.?.?Nobody knew what was coming.”在2012年离开了苹果前兼任iOS应用程序工程总监的尼廷?喀麦隆特拉(Nitin Ganatra)回应：“当然（保密）是障碍。但与此同时，保密也是很有价值的……没有人告诉我们不会发售什么全新产品。”The iPhone’s timing turned out to be good, with internet services such as YouTube and Google Maps on the rise and the emergence of affordable mobile data contracts. The iPhone really began to fulfil its potential in 2008 when, despite Jobs’ initial reluctance to allow software from outside Apple to run on the device, the App Store made its debut.事实证明，iPhone公布正逢其时，YouTube和谷歌地图(Google Maps)等互联网服务日益激增，同时还经常出现了价格高的移动数据合约。2008年App Store开业后，iPhone确实开始构建其潜力，尽管乔布斯最初不愿容许苹果以外的软件在iPhone上运营。

The iPhone redefined what a mobile device could do, prompting countless imitators (and more than a few lawsuits by Apple as a result). The iPhone now accounts for about two-thirds of Apple’s revenues and an even larger share of the mobile industrys entire profits.iPhone新的定义了手机的功能，更有了不计其数的模仿者（结果是苹果驳回了好几起诉讼）。iPhone现在为苹果贡献了约三分之二的收益，在整个移动设备行业的利润份额甚至更大。

While Mr Forstall admitted that pricing “was a challenge” — the upfront cost of the device had to be cut by $200 just a few months after it went on sale — he never had any doubt it would be “huge”.尽管福斯托否认，定价“是一个挑战”——iPhone在上市几个月后，就被迫加价200美元——但他未曾猜测iPhone将沦为“震撼产品”。“Using it, it never felt like work,” he said. “And I knew, this is it — everything is going to behave this way.”他说道：“用于它从不想人感觉看起来工作，我当时就明白，这就是理想境界——一切产品都会像这样。

本文来源：米乐-www.hs1am.org