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Do Not Forget Nokia
With all the commotion over Google‘s challenge to the iPhone，it has been easy to overlook the limping giant of the mobile phone market. Nokia sells more than one in three of the world’s handsets，but it has been outwitted and outclassed in the race to build smartphones. This is more serious than it seems.
Smartphones represented just 15 per cent of Nokia‘s net sales by volume in the third quarter，but 45 per cent by value. It has the biggest slice of that market but is losing share to Apple，RIM and rivals using Google’s Android operating system. In spite of spending about a 10th of net sales on research and development last year，Nokia‘s own jumble of software and operating systems has been met with frustration from developers and a shrug from consumers. Its operating margin has almost halved since 2008.
Should Nokia admit defeat on software？It is not yet clear how many competing operating systems the world can really support. Nokia could abandon its proprietary strategy，hitch its cart to Android，and become a simple hardware company.Management is understandably unwilling to countenance such a move. Nokia is brilliant at hardware-and always has been-but squeezing money from it in the smartphone world will be tough.The last thing it wants is to wind up like Dell，the unloved hardware-maker of the PC sector.
The company is right，then，to try to revive its software strategy.It has promised better usability this year and incentives for developers to write applications.Investors have seen Nokia underperform the market by about 30 per cent over the past year.Patience is wearing thin. They will demand improvements in 2010. Otherwise，it may be time to think the unthinkable.
譯文梗概
別忘了諾基亞
當(dāng)谷歌(Google)挑戰(zhàn)iPhone鬧得沸沸揚揚之際，人們很容易忽略手機市場那個步履艱難的巨人。諾基亞(Nokia)的手機銷量占全球1/3以上，但它在制造智能手機的競爭中，被對手以巧計勝出，并遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)地落在了后面。這件事情比看起來更嚴(yán)重。
去年第三季度，智能手機只占諾基亞手機凈銷售量的15%，卻貢獻了45%的凈銷售額。諾基亞雖然占據(jù)著智能手機市場的最大份額，但蘋果公司(Apple)、RIM和使用谷歌Android操作系統(tǒng)的競爭對手正在蠶食它的地盤。盡管諾基亞去年把10%左右的凈銷售額用在了研發(fā)上，但其自有的軟件和操作系統(tǒng)組合，卻遭到了軟件開發(fā)者的抵制和消費者的冷遇。自2008年以來，它的營運利潤率已下降近一半。
諾基亞是否應(yīng)該承認(rèn)在軟件方面落敗？我們目前尚不清楚，智能手機領(lǐng)域究竟能夠支持多少種相互競爭的操作系統(tǒng)。諾基亞可以放棄其自有軟件戰(zhàn)略，轉(zhuǎn)而把手機掛靠在Android平臺上，成為一家單純的硬件企業(yè)。但管理層不愿支持這種做法，是可以理解的。諾基亞在硬件制造方面技藝卓絕——而且向來如此——但在智能手機領(lǐng)域，要想從硬件制造中獲利，將十分困難。諾基亞最不希望看到的結(jié)果就是，自己到頭來變成像PC領(lǐng)域失寵的硬件制造商戴爾(Dell)那樣的企業(yè)。
因此，諾基亞重振自身軟件戰(zhàn)略，是正確之舉。諾基亞今年已承諾提高易用性，并為編寫應(yīng)用程序的開發(fā)者提供激勵。投資者已注意到，過去一年里諾基亞股價的表現(xiàn)落后大盤約30%。投資者正失去耐性。他們將要求諾基亞在2010年作出改善。否則，可能是時候來“考慮一下無法想象的事情”(think the unthinkable)了。
(文章來源：FT中文網(wǎng))
點評
one in three，1/3，還有另一種表示方法，one third，分?jǐn)?shù)的表示需注意，分子用基數(shù)詞，分母用序數(shù)詞，且若分子大于1，分母的序數(shù)詞需加s，比如，2/5，two fifths。represented，在此意為took up，占據(jù)(比例)。Proprietary可作形容詞和名詞，作形容詞時，意為“私有的”“(商品)專賣的；專營的”，作名詞時意為“業(yè)主”“專賣品”，還可以指“控股公司”。be willing to do sth，“愿意做某事”，反義為be unwilling to do sth，“不愿意做某事”；squeezing money在此很形象，像是擠牙膏一樣獲利，形容獲利之難。Patience is wearing thin，很形象地表示“失去耐心”。 |