????上個月，知名高清電視廠商Vizio公司開始發售寬屏幕電視（Cinemawide TV）。它擁有一塊58英寸的超寬屏幕，設計宗旨正是為了在電視上按照電影應有的觀賞方式來觀影——屏幕頂部和底部不再有那種常見的黑色邊框。這臺電視的分辨率高達2560×1080，寬高比為21：9，能讓用戶獲得更接近影院效果的體驗。

????長期以來，電子設備制造商、尤其是電視廠商，習慣于用一大堆日益冗長、聽起來日益玄乎的技術名詞對消費者狂轟濫炸。但在電子設備行業這種虛張聲勢的潮流中，Vizio的寬銀幕電視絕非跟風之作。這款產品宣告，Vizio在不到十年的時間里，已經從一家專門生產廉價雜牌產品的廠商成長為業內響當當的主導創新型企業。

????早在2002年，Vizio就通過推出低價平板電視殺入了美國市場。實質上，這正是它打入市場的獨門秘技。對于這家位于加州爾灣市的公司來說，這一招很快就大獲成功。據IT調查公司IHS iSuppli稱，2012年第一財季，Vizio公司LCD電視機的出貨量約為121萬臺。盡管與去年同期的156萬臺相比有所下降，但仍讓公司重新坐上了美國LCD平板電視銷售榜單的頭把交椅。更為可貴的是，Vizio自成立以來業績幾乎一直在持續增長。據估計，去年其營收超過29億美元（Vizio是私有公司，沒有公布實際利潤）。

????市場研究公司NPD集團的顯示器研究部門北美地區電視研究總監保羅?蓋格農表示：“Vizio已經是一個極具競爭力和創新性的品牌了。”傳統的平板電視生產流程是垂直整合的，也就是一家公司主導一系列產品的設計、生產和營銷。而Vizio特立獨行，打破了這一傳統，攪活了這個市場。蓋格農解釋道，Vizio反其道而行之，它負責設計產品，隨后再找外部生產廠家，打破了所謂的“現狀”。

????眾多競爭廠商可能已經察覺Vizio來者不善。畢竟，Vizio平板電腦的部分技術是從一些昔日的電子廠商巨頭抄襲而來的。正如日本公司索尼（Sony）和松下（Panasonic）曾一度將RCA和Magnavox這樣的成熟品牌擠出市場后，卻發現來自韓國的后起之秀LG公司和三星公司（Samsung）奪走了自己的市場份額一樣，現在Vizio正與三星展開鏖戰，為了銷售冠軍的寶座一決高下。Vizio的首席技術官馬特?麥克雷稱：“如果回顧過去這些年來電視制造業的發展史，就會發現Vizio是通過顛覆式的創新進軍市場的。當時，絕大多數電視廠商巨頭還在生產CRT電視或背投式電視，而用戶能買到的平板電視價格則普遍高高在上。”

????令人驚訝的是，Vizio的創立地并不是什么地處偏遠、成本低廉的制造業城市。它誕生于加州。2002年，王蔚（William Wang）僅用了60萬美元，就在雷尼?紐桑姆和肯?勞氏這兩位好友的幫助下創辦了這家公司。他們三人曾在王所創立的美格公司（MAG Innovision）共事。這家公司成立于1990年代，專門生產CRT顯示器。在用物美價廉的等離子電視幫助Gateway公司（Gateway Computers，美國第三大PC廠商——譯注）迅速打入——隨后又快速退出——電視機市場后，王蔚就自立門戶了。他的遠大愿景是：在傳統CRT電視逐漸被新技術取代之際，推廣能大幅削弱其他廠商競爭優勢的平板電視。蓋格農稱：“這個市場的進入門檻不高。但同樣是低價競爭策略，比起其他那些努力擠進這個市場的廠商來說，Vizio要用得更得心應手些。”

????Vizio之所以能做到這一點，很大程度上是因為，與其大多數競爭對手不同，它自己并不真正生產電視。Vizio從來就不是一個生產廠商品牌，從來就沒有自己的工廠。IHS iSuppli公司的資深分析師、電視技術部門總監湯姆?莫若德稱：“Vizio的戰略和蘋果公司（Apple）類似。它沒有自己的生產線，也不擁有自己的供應商。對蘋果來說，這一戰略一直就非常成功，對Vizio而言也會如此。”

????位于臺灣的瑞軒科技公司（AmTran Technology）現在是Vizio的四家代工公司之一。它還擁有Vizio的股份。麥克雷稱：“我們合作的每家廠商都有各自擅長的領域，有些廠家還特別擅長生產特定的產品，如某個尺寸的電視。要制造特定規格的電視時，我們就會挑選最好的零配件，尋找能生產它的最佳廠商搭檔。”他的言外之意是：Vizio的經營機制靈活快捷，遠非競爭對手所能及。

????迄今為止，這一戰略已讓Vizio在最受歡迎的32英寸和40到42英寸這一市場奪得了18.5%的份額。公司還向其他設備進軍，如條狀音箱——置于電視下的揚聲器。Vizio在這個市場以27.5%的市場份額高居第一。Vizio可能還會繼續擴展產品線。在今年一月舉行的消費電子展（Consumer Electronics Show）上，Vizio推出了一系列電腦，包括兩款一體機和三款筆記本電腦。

????當然，電視是Vizio成功開拓的領域，它很可能會繼續致力于這個市場。它之所以大獲成功，很大程度上在于能為更在意價格而非其他特性的用戶提供價值，包括出色的性能。 莫若德對《財富》雜志（Fortune）稱：“它的產品并沒有任何屬于自己的創新技術。但它的價格對大多數人來說都極具吸引力，并讓它成為銷量領先的品牌。”

????問題在于，Vizio未來將往什么方向發展。通過獨特的定價戰略，它戰勝了那些行動遲緩、慣于享受豐厚利潤的競爭對手，獲得了成長。但是，據分析師稱，在當前這種經濟環境下，許多消費者還在尋覓最低價格。因此，Vizio打算提供多種高端電子產品的雄心壯志可能與這種大氣候并不合拍。而麥克雷稱：“在目前市場上，我們絕不是最廉價的品牌。我們看到過很多更廉價的品牌曇花一現，往往6到9個月后就銷聲匿跡了。”

????譯者：清遠

????Last month TV maker Vizio began selling its Cinemawide TV, which features an ultra-wide 58-inch screen that is designed for viewing movies as they were meant to be seen -- without the common black bars on the top and bottom. The super-wide set offers a resolution of 2,560 by 1,080 pixels and a 21:9 aspect ratio to give viewers a more theater-like viewing experience.

????Gadget manufacturers, TV makers in particular, have long plied consumers with ever-longer, more complex-sounding technical specifications. But Vizio's Cinemawide isn't a typical exercise in electronics bravado. It heralds a bold shift for a company that has gone from a purveyor of chintzy, off-brand sets to being a major industry disruptor in less than a decade.

????Vizio entered the U.S. market by, in essence, disrupting it with low-priced TVs back in 2002. That quickly paid off for the Irvine, California-based company. According IHS iSuppli, Vizio shipped about 1.21 million LCD TVs in the first quarter of 2012. And while this is a drop from the 1.56 million sold in the same quarter a year earlier, the company reclaimed the top spot for sales of the flat panel LCD sets in the United States. What's more, Vizio has seen nearly continuous growth since its founding. It is estimated to have had revenues that exceeded $2.9 billion last year. (The company is private and does not disclose earnings.)

????"They have been a very competitive and disruptive brand," says Paul Gagnon, director of North America TV research at NPD Group's Displaysearch. Vizio has disrupted the market by not following the traditional, vertically integrated flat panel TV manufacturing process, which typically has a single company designing, manufacturing and marketing a line of products. Instead, Gagnon explained, Vizio designs the sets but then looks to outside manufacturers, disrupting what he called the "status quo."

????Competitors might have seen it coming. After all, Vizio cribbed parts of its playbook from electronics juggernauts past. Just as Japanese firms including Sony (SNE) and Panasonic (PC) edged out established brands such as RCA and Magnavox, only to see Korean upstarts LG and Samsung take away market share, now Vizio is battling with Samsung for the top spot. "If you look at the history in the TV space in the last years, you will see that Vizio did enter through disruption," says Matt McRae, Vizio's chief technology officer. "At the time most of big TV makers were still producing CRTs or rear projection sets, and the flat panel sets that were offered to consumers came with a high-price."

????Surprisingly, Vizio was founded not in some far-flung, low-cost manufacturing city, but in California. It was started in 2002 by William Wang with just $600,000 and help from friends Laynie Newsome and Ken Lowe. The three had worked together at Wang's former company MAG Innovision, a maker of CRT displays in the 1990s. After helping Gateway Computers briefly enter -- only to quickly exit -- the TV market with affordable plasma sets, Wang struck out alone. His vision: sell flat panel sets that severely undercut the competition just as traditional CRT sets were being replaced by newer technology. "The market has had a low barrier to entry," says Gagnon, "but this strategy played out for Vizio a little better than it has for others who have tried to enter."

????The company was able to accomplish this in no small part because, unlike most of its rivals, it doesn't actually manufacture its own sets. Vizio has never been a manufacturing brand, and never owned a factory of its own. "The company instead has a similar strategy to Apple (AAPL)," says Tom Morrod, senior analyst and head of TV technology at IHS iSuppli. "They don't own their own manufacturing, they don't own the suppliers. This has been a very successful strategy for Apple and it could be very successful with Vizio."

????Taiwan-based AmTran Technology currently is one of four firms that manufacture products for Vizio, while it also owns a stake in the company. "Each of the manufacturers we work with does something well, and we do have manufacturers that do specific products like sets in one screen size very well," argues McRae. "When we are building a specific TV we try to pick the best components and look for who would be the best match to manufacture the product." His point: Vizio is nimble and flexible in ways competitors can't be.

????So far, this has allowed Vizio to nab 18.5% market share in the popular 32-inch and 40-to-42-inch screen sizes. The company has also branched out to other gear such as sound bars -- speakers that sit underneath a television -- where it has the top spot with 27.5% of the market. The company is likely to continue expanding. At the annual Consumer Electronics Show in January Vizio introduced a line of computers, including two all-in-one desktops and three notebooks.

????TVs of course are where the company has made its mark, and where it will likely continue to focus. It has largely been successful by providing value when consumers consider price over just about everything else, including advanced features. "There is nothing innovative in it by its own right," Morrod told Fortune. "But the price especially has appealed to a large portion of the population and allowed Vizio to become a leading brand by sales."

????The question is where Vizio can go from here. It has managed to grow by outflanking slow-moving competitors used to fat margins. Its ambitions to provide all manner of high-end electronics may not jibe with an economic climate where many consumers, according to analysts, still look for the lowest sticker price. "We're far from the cheapest brand on the market at present," counters McRae. "We're seeing many cheaper brands pop up but they're gone in six to nine months."