????朱麗婭?胡與蘋果（Apple）攜手，銷售幫助人們起床的小玩意。胡是Lark公司的首席執行官，這家初創公司生產的腕帶能追蹤你的睡眠情況，并在某一時刻開始震動，無聲的將你“喚醒”，而不會吵到你的枕邊人。你只需翻個身，用手指在你的iPhone上劃一下，就能關閉震動。

????然后，你可以睡眼朦朧地查看Lark追蹤的信息：夜里你醒了幾次，什么時候醒的，都體現在一張睡眠圖表里。這個小玩意很不錯，一不小心就會上癮。使用了幾周之后，我開始用它的讀數來為自己的壞脾氣辯護。我一直對自己說，假如前一晚我不知不覺醒了24次，那么第二天說些刻薄的牢騷話是可以原諒的。

????如果你想閱讀Lark的詳細評測，請參閱其它網站。不過我更感興趣的是Lark的商業模型，換句話說，Lark為何如此走運？因為當絕大部分創業公司還在費盡心思向陌生人推介自己時，Lark已經成功牽手了最重量級的合作伙伴——蘋果。

????僅僅一次會晤之后，蘋果的大佬們就決定將Lark放上北美洲蘋果零售店的貨架上。就這樣，Lark將命運和蘋果綁在了一起，就如同一只緊緊附著在船身免費旅行的藤壺（海洋里的一種甲殼類小動物——譯注）。

????透過Lark的故事，我們能略微一窺蘋果的零售運營是如何運作的。不過胡不愿意過多談論此事。她在幾周前，即Lark發布之前，向《財富》（Fortune）透露，“蘋果要求我嚴守秘密，他們非常不希望我談論任何相關事情。”

????其它幾家公司，像無線配件生產商Jawbone、羅技（Logitech）和擁有iHome品牌的SDI科技公司等，都不愿評論自己與蘋果的零售關系。蘋果的合作伙伴們似乎都被蘋果“大名鼎鼎”的保密文化同化了，或者說他們都很害怕蘋果的報復。不過這就是接受蘋果恩賜的代價吧。（蘋果也拒絕對此置評。）

????下面我們來盡可能詳細講述一下Lark的故事：朱莉亞?胡畢業于麻省理工學院斯隆商學院（MIT's Sloan School of Business），她當時開發出了能正常工作的Lark的原型。2010年，胡通過一些人的安排，與蘋果進行了一次會議。胡表示，“我當時以為蘋果肯定對我們一無所知，我要向蘋果介紹Lark是什么，我們又是誰。”不過蘋果并不需要他們做任何解釋。主管蘋果配件銷售的道格?理查森告訴胡，蘋果已經關注Lark六個月時間了。理查森僅僅快速瀏覽了一下Lark，就決定將上千條Lark腕帶放上蘋果零售店貨架。

????蘋果首席視覺設計師杰克?克萊因幫助Lark設計了包裝。胡表示，“我從他那兒學到了不少東西。人們希望感覺到這是一款怎樣的產品。找到一種方法讓他們能迅速聯想到蘋果，從而證明這是款讓人舒適的產品。”胡深受啟發，她按照克萊因的教導，重新排列了Lark包裝盒內的部件。胡表示，“我基本上把蘋果的人當作測試版的用戶。”

????那些測試版試用者將成為Lark的獨家零售商，至少在最初幾個月是如此。作為交換，Lark得以加入到蘋果的“路演”中。但事實上，似乎沒有人樂意討論蘋果的路演究竟是什么。胡擔心向我們透露這些信息將違反自己與蘋果的保密協議。蘋果當然也不會討論此事。不過蘋果的官方網站上還是有“K-12 IT路演”的信息。通過谷歌搜索可以看到，路演就是一種小型集會，人們可以參與其中并從中了解開發者對蘋果技術的利用情況。胡顯然認為蘋果在會議上討論Lark是大有裨益的。這再次證明Lark的市場營銷現在與蘋果緊緊捆綁在了一起。

????所有這一切的目的都是讓Lark進入到盡可能多的人的視線里。根據投資與資本管理公司Needham & Co的調查，過去三個月，300家蘋果零售店的平均客流量超過20萬人。即便只有很少一部分顧客看到了Lark，但對Lark而言，也是很高的曝光率。蘋果向Lark提供了推銷渠道。很多互聯網新創公司都會告訴你，渠道對于產生最初的客流至關重要，因為他們隨后才能進行口耳相傳。如果這渠道分布在300個不同得地方，每個地方都有成千上萬人光顧呢？那就更好了。

????和很多應用開發商利用App Store一樣，Lark利用蘋果來獲得關注。開發商們希望蘋果的網絡將幫助自己找到“觀眾”。 Lark的地位比其它開發商更加穩固。畢竟蘋果明確邀請Lark進駐其零售商店，而這不僅僅是因為Lark沒有違反蘋果神秘的條件和條款文件。

????Lark獲得了蘋果的認可。對于蘋果的死忠粉絲來說，這就如同得到了史蒂夫?喬布斯的臨幸。是不是在床上倒無所謂。

????譯者：項航

????Julia Hu got into bed with Apple (AAPL) so she could sell gadgets that get people out of bed. Hu is the CEO of Lark, a startup making a wristband that tracks your sleep until the moment it interrupts it. That's when it starts vibrating, a silent alarm that wakes you while your partner stays asleep. To turn it off you roll over and slide your finger across your iPhone.

????You can then blearily look at what Lark has been tracking: When and how often you woke up during the night, charted out on a sleep graph. It's a neat, addictive little gadget, and after weeks of testing, I've started to use its readings to justify any and all crankiness. Caustic grumbles are excusable when I know my sleep was unconsciously interrupted 24 times overnight. Or so I keep telling myself.

????If you want to read a full review of the product, look elsewhere. I'm more intrigued by Lark's business model, which is to say Lark's luck. Because while most startups have to shill to introduce themselves to strangers, Lark has already introduced itself to the one party that mattered most: Apple.

????After only one meeting with Apple, the people in Cupertino agreed to put Lark on the shelves of Apple Stores across North America. And just like that, Lark attached its fortune to Apple's - a barnacle along for the ride.

????Lark's story offers a rare glimpse into how things work inside Apple's retail operation. Not that Hu can say that much about it. "The Apple stuff is so under-wraps they don't really want me to talk about anything," she told Fortune a few weeks ago, before Lark launched.

????Several other companies, from Jawbone to Logitech (LOGI) to SDI's iHome, declined to comment on their retail relationships with Apple. Apple's partners appear to be assimilating to Apple's notorious devotion to secrecy – or fearful of its vindictive reprisals. But that's the cost of receiving Apple's blessing. (Apple also declined to comment for this story.)

????Lark's story, or as much as it can be retold, goes like this: In 2010, after graduating from MIT's Sloan School of Business and developing a working Lark prototype, Hu leveraged some contacts and got a meeting with Apple. "I went in there thinking it was going to be a completely cold pitch that we'd be explaining to them what Lark was and who we were," she says. But Apple didn't need an explanation. Doug Richardson, the man in charge of Apple's accessories merchandising, told her Apple had been tracking the buzz about Lark for six months. It only took a quick pitch from Lark to have Richardson put thousands of Larks in Apple's retail stores.

????Jack Klein, one of Apple's lead visual designers, helped Lark design the packaging. "He told us several things," Hu says. "People want to feel what they're sleeping with. Figure out a way where you could quickly have an Apple associate prove that this is a comfortable product.'" Hu, impressed, did as she was told, rearranging what was inside the box. "I consider them almost like beta testers," Hu says.

????And those beta testers, at least for the first few months, will be Lark's exclusive retailer. In exchange, Lark gets to take part in Apple's "roadshow," a – well... actually, nobody seems willing to talk about what Apple's roadshow is. Hu worried that telling me would violate her non-disclosure agreement with Apple. Apple of course declined to comment. Apple's own website, though, has information about a "K-12 IT Road Show." And a quick Google search shows it's a mini-conference for people to come and see what developers are doing with Apple technology. Hu apparently felt it was worth having Apple talk Lark up at these conferences. More proof that Lark's marketing is now inexorably hitched to Apple's.

????And that's what this is all about: Getting Lark in front of as many people as possible. On average, more than 200,000 people came through each of Apple's 300+ stores in the last three months, according to Needham & Co. That's great exposure for Lark, even if a small fraction of those shoppers look at Lark. For Lark, Apple offers a retailing portal to its product. And as any web startup can tell you, portals are the key to generating that initial traffic bump that starts word of mouth. If that portal has hundreds of thousands of visitors in each of its 300 locations? Even better.

????Lark, then, is using Apple the same way many app developers use the App Store: to be seen. Developers are hopeful Apple's network will help them find an audience. Lark's position is even more secure. Apple, after all, explicitly invited Lark into the retail store, and not just because it didn't violate its arcane terms and conditions document.

????Lark has received Apple's imprimatur. And for Apple diehards, that's as good as being touched by Steve Jobs himself. In bed or otherwise.