????2013年年中，我們陷入了一種群體性的平靜。手機市場波瀾不驚，依然是蘋果和安卓兩家獨大。Mac和個人電腦市場在日漸萎縮，盡管蘋果的表現好于競爭對手。此外，還要對三星（Samsung）說一聲抱歉（三星公司曾推出名為“The Next Big Thing”的廣告），因為不論是顛覆性的電視、可穿戴計算設備、物聯網還是會做飲料、講笑話的機器人管家，下一個奇跡都沒有光臨三星。

????而試圖塑造下一個時代的蘋果公司也并沒有拿出他們的手段。因此，庫克的話題也只能始終圍繞著過去和現在的策略，一邊努力爭取時間，直到蘋果的天才們搞清楚，他們將給未來產品打上怎樣的標簽。

????我們需要清楚的是：是不是多年來一直被庫克所取笑的這些下一代產品實際上此刻已經存在于庫比蒂諾某處的秘密實驗室里。我們目前正處于科技行業的兩次變革之間，科技界一直在尋找一款產品，能像iPhone一樣刺激一代技術工作者。上一次的突破來自蘋果，因此人們很自然會期望，蘋果能夠帶來下一個奇跡。因為雖然蘋果失去了喬布斯，但蘋果的大部分仍被完好地保留了下來。

????一切都有可能發生，也有可能不會發生。但不論是蘋果還是其他公司生產出下一個突破性產品，到那時，庫克的公開露面都會變得越來越不重要：如果他每次露面依然是老生常談，沒有新的話題，那就意味著我們也沒有必要再密切關注蘋果的一言一行了。

????希望下一個突破性產品早點到來。只有當我們親眼見證一服務全新的、激動人心的事物茁壯成長的時候，才會發現科技原來是如此有趣。（財富中文網）

????譯者：劉進龍/汪皓

????In mid-2013, we’re in a collective lull. Mobile is old news, dominated by Apple and Android. The Mac/PC market is in freefall, even if Apple is still doing better than the competition. And with apologies to Samsung, the next big thing — disruptive TV, wearable computing, the internet of things, or robot butlers that make drinks and crack jokes — is not here yet.

????The Apple that will attempt to shape that next era has yet to show its hand, leaving Cook in a holding pattern talking about the strategies of the past and present while buying time until Apple’s wizards figure out how they’re going to put their stamp on the products of the future.

????Let’s be very clear: should these next-generation products Cook has teased for years actually exist somewhere in a secretive lab in Cupertino, this is a blip in time for Apple. We’re simply between breakthroughs as an industry, searching for something that will galvanize a generation of technologists the way the iPhone did. Apple produced the last breakthrough, and people naturally expect that it will produce the next one given that so much of the company remains intact despite the loss of Jobs.

????That may or may not happen. But until then either Apple or someone else produces that breakthrough, Cook’s public appearances grow less and less important: if all he’s going to do is cover ground he’s covered before without a new story to tell, the need to pay attention to Apple’s every word becomes less and less important.

????Let’s hope that next breakthrough comes soon. Technology is a more interesting subject when we’re all watching something new and exciting bloom.