美國無線設備制造商Jawbone

公司收入：不詳

公司總部：舊金山

所屬行業：移動耳機

成立時間：1999年

員工人數：200人

????在戰場上，戰士們面臨的一個難題是，在嘈雜的噪音中接聽電話。因此，當斯坦福大學（Stanford）的兩名畢業生亞歷山大?阿塞利和候賽恩?拉赫曼帶著降噪技術進入國防部（the Defense Department）時，國防部如獲至寶。當然，這已是十年前的事了。今年，他們的Jawbone公司利用這一技術生產出的耳機（右），使電話使用者無需手扶，便可輕松接打電話，而且，這一技術還能降低街道和周圍背景中嘈雜的噪音。耳機中的傳感器感受臉頰的振動度，微型麥克風清理和消除背景中的噪音。目前，這家私營公司仍由當初的兩名斯坦福大學畢業生經營。（該公司不對外公開財務數據。）今年7月，該公司獲得了摩根大通資產管理公司（J.P. Morgan Asset Management）7，000萬美元的注資。此前，它曾獲得了風投公司霍洛維茨基金（Andreessen Horowitz）和紅杉資本（Sequoia）的數輪投資。投資方希望Jawbone利用這些資金，生產更加智能的耳機。目前，這家公司生產最新產品可以通過耳機和聲音，把智能手機連接到Twitter上。當然，Jawbone也面臨著來自繽特力（Plantronic）等小公司和三星（Samsung）等大公司的激烈競爭。它面臨的最大挑戰在于：技術升級的速度要快于其他競爭對手。

????——貝琪?費爾德曼

Jawbone

Revenue: Not available

Headquarters: San Francisco

Industry: Mobile headseats

Founded: 1999

Employees: 200

????One problem soldiers face is hearing their phones over the din of battle. When two Stanford grads, Alexander Asseily and Hosain Rahman, approached the Defense Department with their noise-canceling technology, the military jumped on it. That was about a decade ago. Today their company, Jawbone, has morphed that tech into headsets (right) that let phone users talk hands-free while cutting down on street buzz and other annoying background noise. A sensor in the Jawbone unit picks up vibrations in the cheeks, while tiny microphones sort out background noise and cancel it. The duo still run the private company. (It won't reveal financials.) In July the firm received a $70 million equity infusion from J.P. Morgan Asset Management, on top of earlier rounds from VC firms Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia. The money guys like that Jawbone headsets are getting smarter. The latest model lets you connect to Twitter on your smartphone, using your voice. Jawbone does face stiff competition from small players like Plantronics and giants like Samsung. Its big challenge is to keep the improvements coming faster than the other guy.

????--B.F.