苹果成功的秘密--技术平台 编辑本段回目录
苹果公司在iPhone和iPad获得了巨大成功,苹果究竟有什么秘密赢得用户,赢得了市场?本文作者认为苹果之所以能够从在业界的前列,是因为其强大的平台.
规模是增长的敌人。这句话是商业经营的不成文规则，就是简单的百分比问题。年销售额在100亿美元的公司，如果额外增加100亿的，这个公司的业绩就是翻倍。而对于年收入在1000亿美元的公司来说，这100亿 美元只有占其收入的10%。
Try telling that to Apple, the corporate giant that two weeks ago reported a 71 percent jump in quarterly sales. Apple generates revenue at the rate of $100 billion a year. Its chief executive,Steven P. Jobs, who went on medical leave this month, is ailing, but the company is certainly not.我们来看看苹果公司的增长情况。苹果在两周前公布了其季度销售额增加了71%。这个公司每年的增长是1000亿美元。乔布斯在这个月的确是病了，但是苹果公司依然健康。
Hit products like the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad are fueling Apple’s logic-defying growth. The latest entry — the iPad, introduced in April — is on track to deliver $15 billion to $20 billion in revenue in its first full year of sales, estimates A. M. Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. At that size, if the iPad were a stand-alone company, it would rank within the top third of the Fortune 500.
iPad、iPhone、iPad等畅销商品强力推动了苹果公司的业绩增长。来自Sanford C. Bernstein的分析师预计，2010年4月份推出的iPad在其首个销售年，销售额大约在150-200亿美元。要是iPad是一个独立的公司的话，这个销售额会使它跻身世界500强的前三名。
The software and services that work on Apple’s hit products are accelerating its extraordinary expansion. Apple provides the underlying technology and marketplace: iTunes software and the iTunes Store for managing, downloading and buying music and media; iPhone and iPad software for creating applications; and the App Store for sampling and buying them.
苹果公司为这些热门产品提供的软件和服务也在加速扩张。苹果公司提供了基础技术和市场：iTunes软件和用来管理、下载以及购买音视频的iTunes 商店；为iPhone和iPad创建业务应用的软件；展示和购买应用软件的苹果软件应用商店。
The more people buy iPhones and iPads, the more software developers and media companies want to write applications for them, as various as games and digital magazines. And consumers are more likely to buy iPhones and iPads when more entertainment and information applications are available on them. The combination of hardware, software and services is what corporate executives, economists and analysts call a platform. Successful technology platforms sustain and reinforce growth. And this self-reinforcing cycle is known as a network effect. It helps the platform owner and raises a barrier to competitors.
购买iPhone和iPad的用户越多，软件开放商和媒体公司就会越积极，他们能提供应用软件、游戏和数字杂志也丰富。iPhone和iPad应用程序提供的娱乐和信息越多，消费者就越愿意购买。硬件、软件和服务的结合就是所谓的平台。成功的技术平台能够维持和巩固公司业务的增长。这种自我强化循环过程成为网络效应。这种网络效应能够增强平台所有者的实力，提高对手的竞争门槛。
“Apple has hit that magical combination of gradually shifting from a product to a platform strategy,” says Michael A. Cusumano, a professor at the Sloan School of Management at M.I.T. and author of “Staying Power: Six Enduring Principles for Managing Strategy and Innovation in an Uncertain World” (Oxford University Press, 2010).
麻省理工学院斯隆管理学院的迈克尔.库伊玛诺教授评论“苹果从产品到平台的战略做到了完美的组合”
Successful platforms aren’t confined to the technology industry. America’s interstate highway system, built by the government, could also be seen as platform. The more that people traveled it, the more opportunity it created for businesses and towns linked to its transportation network — and the larger the market for Detroit automakers. A Barbie doll, Mr. Cusumano notes, qualifies as a platform, too. Legions of outside suppliers make clothes, accessories and toys for the doll, while online Barbie fan clubs nurture sales.
成功的平台并不仅限于科技产业。由美国政府出资修建的的州际公路 也可以看作平台。公路上旅行的人越多，就能为连接到公路网络上的公司和城镇提供更多的机会，同时也是汽车制造商更大的市场。库苏玛诺指出芭比娃娃也是个平台。外部供应商为芭比娃娃提供服装、配件和玩具，在线芭比迷俱乐部培养消费兴趣。
Still, the technology business — with its interconnected hardware, software and networks — tends to be where platform strategies are most prevalent and the payoff greatest. In the corporate market, I.B.M. is pursuing a platform strategy largely focused on its Websphere Internet-based software, using I.B.M. programming tools, technology services and computers. Oracle has built a rival computing platform, surrounding its database software with business applications and hardware.
不过，具有互联网硬件、软件和网络的技术公司具有的平台是最普遍也是最赚钱的。在企业用户市场，IBM公司利用其编程工具、技术服务和计算机，集中推行其基于互联网的WebSphere软件平台周战略。甲骨文相应的也围绕着其数据库软件业务应用和硬件建立了一个计算平台。
Google’s search service, combined with its in-house advertising marketplace, is the leading Internet platform strategy. In personal computers, Microsoft has been the platform-strategy master. Its Windows operating system running Microsoft’s Office productivity applications is probably the most lucrative product platform in history.
谷歌搜索服务与内部广告市场的结合是领先的互联网平台战略。微软是个人电脑的平台战略专家。运行微软office产品应用软件的视窗操作系统被看出是有史以来最合算的产品。
Microsoft triumphed in the PC industry, analysts say, by fostering an ecosystem of software developers and hardware makers that relied on the company. Apple, the early leader in PCs, fell behind, despite some stellar products, because it made mostly its own hardware and software, and did not nurture a large community of mutually dependent partners, analysts say.
分析师指出微软围绕公司建立产品生态系统，通过扶持软件开发商和硬件制造商，在个人电脑行业取得了胜利。而苹果同为个人电脑的先行者，尽管有一些优秀的产品，但是由于它主要是自己制造硬件和软件，并没有建立和培育互相依存的合作伙伴网络，导致苹果在个人电脑竞争中落后。
Things look different for Apple in the market for mobile devices. There is some debate whether Apple has become a platform strategist by design or by default: When it introduced the iPhone in 2007, Apple did not have software tools for outside developers to make applications. That came in 2008.
在移动设备市场，苹果的表现却大不相同。在2007年苹果推出iPhone时，它并没有对外发布软件开发工具。2008年以后苹果公司开始了其平台建设战略。
“The iPhone was such a great product that lots of people wanted to write applications for it,” says Marco Iansiti, a professor at the Harvard Business School. “This was a case of the hit leading to the platform, and not necessarily voluntarily for Apple.”
哈佛商学院教授马克.伊恩希提说“iPhone是如此伟大的一种产品，以至于非常多的人希望为其编写应用程序，这促使了产品平台的产生，并不一定是苹果主动控制的”。
These days, Apple is a platform player, though it is taking a hybrid approach. It has courted outside partners and suppliers but has fairly strict rules for how applications look and behave in its devices. Apple is offering users not just cool gadgets but also the software that glues together their digital lives — computing, online information gathering and entertainment. It all works better together, the company says, so a person’s second or third Apple product will make the first and second device more useful. The strategy is working so far. Even sales of MacBook notebooks were up 34 percent in the recent quarter, far faster growth than in the overall PC industry.
尽管苹果也在进行业务融合的工作，但是他仍旧是平台参与者。他一面努力争取外部合作伙伴和供应商的同时，另一面在其设备上运行程序的外观和操作进行相当苛刻的规定。苹果不但为用户提供非常酷的小工具，而且能提供把计算、在线信息手机和娱乐这些数字生活融合在一起的软件。苹果公司说，服务、计算、信息、娱乐所有的一切能够更好的运用，以至于用户拥有的第二件或第三件苹果产品会使得他拥有的第一件和第二件苹果设备更加有用。这种战略非常奏效。甚至苹果公司的MacBook笔记本电脑在最近一个季度的销售也增加了34%，远远超过整个个人电脑行业的增长率。
The company is on a roll, Apple enthusiasts say, and it still holds relatively modest shares of huge markets — less than 20 percent for smartphones, and 4 percent for PC’s globally, for example.
苹果的粉丝说，苹果公司的业绩依然势如破竹。苹果在巨大的市场中处于相对适中的份额，例如，不超过20%的智能手机和4%的全球个人电脑占有率。
BUT concerns lie ahead. And the biggest may be a platform challenge from Google. The iPhone redefined the smartphone, but handsets using Google’s Android software are fast attracting users and developers. In 2009, some 25 million iPhones were shipped, compared with about 8 million phones running Android. Last year, Android shipments reached 61 million, compared with about 48 million iPhones, estimates Sanford C. Bernstein.
但是挑战就在面前。最大的问题可能来自谷歌平台。虽然iPhone给了智能手机新的定义，但是手机使用的谷歌Android操作系统更能快速吸引用户和开发人员。据Sanford C. Bernstein估计，2009年销售了25万部iPhone手机，而相比之下Android手机迈出了8万部。去年Android手机卖出了61万部，超过了iPhone手机48万部的销售量。
Like Microsoft in the PC industry, Google supplies the animating software for smartphones but not the hardware. And, also like Microsoft in PCs, it works with many hardware makers, who sell handsets to many mobile carriers.
就像微软在个人电脑行业那样，谷歌能为为智能手机提供生动的软件，而并不是硬件设备。而且恰如微软在个人电脑行业那样，谷歌与很多硬件制造商、手机销售商、移动运营商进行了合作。
Until this month, when it added Verizon, Apple sold to just one carrier, AT&T, limiting its distribution — and, analysts say, the size of the head start it had over Android. In smartphones, like PCs, Apple makes both the hardware and software itself.
直到这个月，苹果才将自己的产品销售从运营商 AT＆T扩展到Verizon公司 ，这种销售方式限制了苹果产品市场，分析师说，苹果公司的产品规模从开始就超过Android，在智能手机领域，就像个人电脑一样，苹果公司自己生产硬件和软件。
“I don’t see any problems yet, but the long-term issue for Apple is whether it can keep it up or will its economics break down,” said David Eiswert, portfolio manager of the T. Rowe Price Global Technology fund, whose largest single holding is Apple.
作为 苹果公司最大的单一控股股东，T.Rower Price环球科技基金的投资经理David Eiswert说，目前我还没有看到任何问题，但是对苹果来说，长期的问题是是否能坚持其战略或者它的经济模式被打破。
In one question, Mr. Eiswert sums up the risk: “Will we eventually see the PC model all over again in this market?”
Eiswert总结了苹果的经营风险：“我们是否能够看到个人电脑的平台战略模式在智能手机市场重新上演一边？谷歌象微软那样控制整个市场”。
