没办法,谁让兄弟我今天要起身奔赴 CES 捏。
关于 CES 和 Macworld 的关系,几年前,伟大的经济学家杂志曾说,
EVERY January, Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple Computer, manages to look like the hippest boss in the entire computer and consumer-electronics industry. During the first week of the year, he coolly stands by as all the other industry bosses go to Las Vegas to exhaust themselves and their audiences at CES, a huge and unwieldy trade show with probably the world’s worst taxi queue. Then, in the second week, Mr Jobs, in his trademark black mock-turtleneck and jeans, mounts a stage in San Francisco at Apple’s Macworld conference, a sort of Woodstock or Glastonbury of the gadget world. There, to oohs and aahs, he unveils Apple’s latest products, all stunning in their design elegance and user-friendliness, not least by comparison to the contraptions his rivals exhibited the week before.大概意思说,每年的第一周,在全球所有电子产业的老总们在 Las Vegas 召开 CES 大会,顺便让赌城“堵”出世界上最烂尾的出租车长龙时,但试图成为全球最吊 CEO 的乔布斯总是袖手旁观,一周之后,乔在旧金山拿出一款让群众们“喔~”和“啊~”声不断的产品……
昨天看《Wired》杂志,更带挑事儿语气的说:
When Steve Jobs announced the iPhone at MacWord 2007, journalists already numbed by Michael Dell's keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas realized they'd attended the wrong
conference.
Apple's single note of originality not only rendered CES 2007 nearly irrelevant, it sent shockwaves through a cellular industry accustomed to rationing out innovation at a stately pace. Fortunately, the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas from Jan. 7 to 10, offers handset manufacturers and carriers a new start -- or, at least, a chance to show what they've learned in the year since Palm CEO Ed Colligan mocked Apple as "PC guys" with no hope of being able to "walk in" on his company's turf.
大意无他:去年 Macworld 推出那款“人类历史上最好最强大的指纹收集器”,让整个 CES 几乎怀疑自己还有没有办下去的必要……顺便说,当时没这个意识,但现在意识到,去年 Macworld 大概提前了一周时间,在 1 月 9 日,跟 CES 同时召开,说明老乔实在很坏很自信。
总之呢,今年的 CES,某种程度上可以被称为去年 Macworld 的回应,就是所有没有生产出爱疯手机的公司都要证明自己也很能行……于是,我的 email 里每天都有 10 来封各种展台的邀请……花开两朵,各表一支。
今年的 Macworld 会讲咩?跟以往任何一届 Macworld 都不同的是,我们大概都知道老乔要发布什么了:
iPhone 销量达到 500 万台的消息,固件 1.1.3 的 iPhone,跟 Fox/Disney 谈好的租赁影片,还有,3 more things,
“一款叫超薄的产品,一款叫金属外壳的产品,以及一款笔记本……你们听懂了吗?一款叫超薄的产品,一款叫金属外壳的产品,以及一款笔记本……你们还没懂?我在说超薄金属壳笔记本液……”
真是满尴尬的,老乔做了这么多年保密工作(连自己私生女都不承认),今年的 Macworld 似乎是照着 blog 念的感觉……会有惊喜吗?这是我此刻唯一想的问题。
很可能不会。想想 2006 年,苹果发布了什么?反正我是想不起来了……
下一代 iPhone 现在还不能发,至少要等到 6 月去。新的 iPod 已经没什么惊喜。
仅有的两个选择是:新一代 AppleTV,或,触摸屏 MacBook。
就像我们之前说过的,乔布斯还想在世界上兴风作浪,电视算是屈指可数的大机会。没想到几天之后高盛的分析师就验证了这可能性:新的 Apple TV 将不再只是一个盒子,它还包括液晶显示器。
但问题是,做电视,就一定要跟电视网,在美国是 Comcast,在中国是歌华之类的谈,这个估计需要更长时间。除非老乔就是卖个外壳。
触摸屏的 MacBook 也谈了不少年,老乔一直嫌市场小,但 iPhone 之后,他还会这么想吗?
拜托,1 月 15 日,给些惊喜来!