????蘋(píng)果（Apple）一直都是計(jì)算與電子設(shè)備行業(yè)的寶馬（BMW）、蒂凡尼(Tiffany)和四季酒店（Four Seasons）。你可以用任何奢華的比喻來(lái)形容它。但在周二，蘋(píng)果卻公開(kāi)了它的雪佛蘭（Chevrolet）策略。

????蘋(píng)果發(fā)布會(huì)是值得關(guān)注的大事。【我是不是還應(yīng)該加上杰西潘尼公司（J.C. Penney）和萬(wàn)豪國(guó)際集團(tuán)（Marriott）的萬(wàn)怡套房酒店（Courtyard Suites）？當(dāng)然。】

????塑料外殼的iPhone 5c在美國(guó)99美元起售，預(yù)示著蘋(píng)果正在積極向低端智能手機(jī)市場(chǎng)進(jìn)軍。這是一個(gè)大膽的舉措，旨在吸引新的消費(fèi)者群體。這個(gè)策略充分延續(xù)了蘋(píng)果現(xiàn)有產(chǎn)品線自我吞噬的特點(diǎn)。

????自我吞噬是蘋(píng)果的標(biāo)志。它對(duì)iPod就采取了無(wú)情的替換策略，而iPhone的出現(xiàn)又使得iPod突然放緩增長(zhǎng)，最后陷入負(fù)增長(zhǎng)。蘋(píng)果對(duì)低價(jià)策略也不陌生。iPod Shuffle最初的價(jià)格便非常低廉，而且iTunes上還有許多僅售99美分的歌曲。

????不過(guò)，維護(hù)高端市場(chǎng)的同時(shí)進(jìn)軍低端大眾市場(chǎng)卻是一種全新的策略。蘋(píng)果用大量時(shí)間介紹了它的最新款iPhone 5s手機(jī)——智能手機(jī)中的寶馬。看看蘋(píng)果在它最出色的手機(jī)上配置的超強(qiáng)處理器，大家肯定會(huì)覺(jué)得這個(gè)比喻非常貼切。iPhone 5s提供包括金色在內(nèi)的三種顏色。低端iPhone 5c手機(jī)使用聚碳酸酯制成，蘋(píng)果設(shè)計(jì)總監(jiān)喬尼?艾維形容聚碳酸酯是一種“不掉價(jià)的塑料”。這個(gè)型號(hào)的推出意味著只要能買(mǎi)得起智能手機(jī)的消費(fèi)者幾乎都能買(mǎi)得起iPhone。美國(guó)市場(chǎng)自不必提，在中國(guó)與印度等發(fā)展中國(guó)家，iPhone將變得更加流行。

????“等一下！”你或許正在想。蘋(píng)果是要執(zhí)行市場(chǎng)滲透策略，還是真的有傳說(shuō)中的新武器？

????蘋(píng)果公司這次確實(shí)推出了新指紋識(shí)別技術(shù)，手機(jī)用戶可以不必輸入密碼，只需按下Home鍵就可確定身份。iPhone 5s的攝像頭技術(shù)會(huì)令攝影愛(ài)好者大吃一驚，攝影新手會(huì)為它更出色的拍攝效果和更便捷的照片搜索驚艷不已。蘋(píng)果表示，它的聲控搜索服務(wù)Siri可以找到更多東西。這項(xiàng)進(jìn)步很受歡迎。

????所以，這是蘋(píng)果的又一次漸進(jìn)式更新，而不是徹底的突破。但蘋(píng)果還有時(shí)間。畢竟，不可能每個(gè)季度都能上演奇跡，盡管蘋(píng)果是一家成功的大公司。如果大膽冒進(jìn)意味著心甘情愿放棄之前的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，那么還是順其自然吧。

????昨天舉行發(fā)布會(huì)的蘋(píng)果Town Hall禮堂的墻壁上有一句史蒂夫?喬布斯的名言：“如果你取得了一次精彩的成功，那你應(yīng)該再接再厲，再創(chuàng)輝煌。不要念念不忘之前的成功，要想想接下來(lái)該做什么。”

????相反，我們很多人都對(duì)蘋(píng)果過(guò)去的輝煌念念不忘。不管蘋(píng)果公司是否也是如此，至少它肯定在思考接下來(lái)該做什么，同時(shí)正在為之付出努力。這本身就是一件很好的事情。（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

????譯者：劉進(jìn)龍/汪皓??

????Choose your luxury metaphor, but Apple (AAPL) always has been the BMW, the Tiffany, the Four Seasons of the computing and electronics industry. On Tuesday, it unveiled its Chevrolet strategy.

????That's a big deal, a moment worth noting. (Should I have added J.C. Penney (JCP) and Courtyard Suites by Marriott (MAR) too? Yes, for sure.)

????By offering an iPhone in the U.S. starting at $99 -- the iPhone 5c made of PLASTIC -- Apple is moving aggressively into the low end of smartphones. It's a bold strategy intended to attract a whole new class of consumers. The strategy fully envisions and anticipates the self-cannibalization of Apple's existing product line.

????Self-cannibalization is an Apple hallmark. The company engaged in a brutal replacement strategy on the iPod, which itself was plunged into slow and then negative growth mode by the iPhone. Apple also knows about low prices. The iPod Shuffle was inexpensive from the beginning, as were 99-cent songs on iTunes.

????But going for the low-end mass market while maintaining the high-end is new. Apple spent plenty of time showing its newest BMW of a smartphone, the 5s. The metaphor isn't as loopy as its sounds, given the powerful engine of a microprocessor Apple showed for its top-of-line phone, whose three-color offerings include gold. The low-end model, made of a polycarbonate that design chief Jony Ive referred to as "unapologetically plastic," will make an iPhone available to absolutely everyone who can buy a smartphone. That will be true in the U.S. and even more so in developing countries like China and India.

????"Wait a second," you might be thinking. Is Apple about market-penetration strategies, or is it about fabulous new stuff?

????Well, the company did show its new fingerprint authentication technology, which will enable iPhone users to skip a password and identify themselves to their phone simply by pressing the home button. The camera technology in the iPhone 5s will wow shutterbugs and even more so photography neophytes who will just appreciate taking better photos and being able to find them more easily. Apple suggests that its voice-activated search service Siri now finds more things than before. That's a welcome change.

????So, once again, there is incrementalism from Apple, not radical breakthroughs. But there's time for that. Miracles don't happen on a quarterly schedule. Apple is a business, and a big and successful one at that. If boldness now is a willingness to depart from previous norms, so be it.

????A quote from Steve Jobs appears on the wall of Apple's Town Hall auditorium building, where Tuesday's event took place. "If you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long," it reads. "Just figure out what's next."

????Most of us tend to dwell too long on the "pretty good" things that Apple has done in the past. Whether or not Apple does too, it certainly is trying to figure out what's next and acting on its findings. That's pretty good too.