苹果推出7.9英寸iPad Mini平板电脑

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苹果推出7.9英寸iPad Mini平板电脑

纽约时报 2012-10-25 纽约时报 1035次

Apple, Facing Competition, Introduces a Smaller iPad

苹果推出7.9英寸iPad Mini平板电脑

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Steve Jobs once derided tablets with smaller screens, saying they would need to include sandpaper so people could sand down their fingertips to use them. But that didn’t stop his company from shrinking the iPad.

加利福尼亚州圣何塞——史蒂夫·乔布斯(Steve Jobs)曾经嘲讽那些屏幕较小的平板电脑，说它们得配备磨砂纸，好让用户把指头磨尖，方便操作。但是，这并没有阻止他的苹果公司缩小iPad的尺寸。

Unveiled Tuesday, Apple’s new iPad Mini is smaller and lighter than its predecessor. Its screen is 7.9 diagonal inches, making its surface area significantly smaller than the current 9.7-inch iPad. It weighs about two-thirds of a pound.

周二，苹果公司推出了新产品iPad Mini。与以往的iPad相比，该机型更加小巧轻便。它拥有7.9英寸（约20厘米）的屏幕，比现在市面上的9.7英寸（约25厘米）iPad小得多，重量则只有大约三分之二磅。

The company is selling the lowest priced Mini for $330, about $130 more than similarly sized tablets from competitors.

最便宜的一款Mini定价330美元（约合人民币2100元），比竞争者生产的同尺寸平板电脑贵大约130美元（约合人民币810元）。

Apple also introduced an upgrade for its iPad, which includes a faster processor and the new Lightning connector. It also showed new laptop and desktop computers. Phil Schiller, Apple’s vice president for marketing, said the smaller, lighter tablet would be a good fit for people who want something more portable than the 1.44 pound iPad.

苹果公司也发布了iPad的升级版，此版本有更快的处理器和新型的闪电接口。公司还展示了新款笔记本电脑和台式机。苹果营销副总裁菲尔·席勒(Phil Schiller)说，对于想要比1.44磅重的iPad更易携带的机型的人来说，这款更小更轻巧的平板电脑是个好选择。

“The iPad is the top-selling tablet in the world, but we’re not taking our foot off the gas,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, at a press conference here. The introduction of a smaller iPad is a bit of a shift for the company. In a call with investors, Mr. Jobs once said 7-inch tablets from competitors like Samsung and Research In Motion were “tweeners” that were too big to compete with a smartphone and too small to compete with an iPad. The new iPad Mini is slightly larger than 7 inches, but can still fall into that category.

在新闻发布会上，苹果首席执行官蒂姆·库克(Tim Cook)说，“iPad是全球销量第一的苹果电脑，但我们不会松懈，仍然会全速前进。”对于苹果公司来说，推出小一些的iPad多少是个改变。乔布斯曾在与投资人通话时称，三星及RIM（加拿大公司，黑莓手机生产者——译注）等竞争者的7英寸平板电脑“高不成低不就”，跟智能手机竞争的话未免太大，跟iPad竞争又太小。新发布的iPad Mini比7英寸大一点儿，但却仍然可以归入他说的那个类型。

But with all the action in the technology market, smaller tablets have become impossible to ignore. Google, Apple’s fiercest competitor, recently released its 7-inch Nexus 7 tablet for $200. And Amazon recently introduced seven new Kindles, including a 7-inch tablet for $160 and an 8.9-inch tablet for $300. Barnes and Noble’s Nook tablet, which starts at $200, has also sold well. Combined, the three companies have sold about 15 million of these smaller, cheaper tablets, according to estimates by Forrester.

但是，技术市场风起云涌，更小的平板电脑已经不容小觑。谷歌是苹果最强劲的对手，近期发布了7英寸的Nexus7 平板电脑，定价200美元（约合1250元人民币）。亚马逊也于近期推出了7款新的Kindle，其中包括售价160美元（约合人民币1000元）的7英寸平板电脑和售价300美元（约合人民币1870元）的8.9英寸平板电脑。Barnes Noble公司的Nook平板电脑起价200美元（约合人民币1200元），也卖得很好。据弗雷斯特研究公司(Forrester)估计，这三家公司一共卖出了大约1500万台这类更小更便宜的平板电脑。

Apple recognizes it now has more real competition. At the event, Mr. Schiller actually did a side-by-side comparison of the Mini to a Google Nexus 7 tablet. He said that other companies had tried to make smaller tablets, but that they were inadequate. He noted that the iPad Mini was thinner, lighter and more durable than Google’s tablet, and still had a bigger screen.

苹果意识到，公司面临着更多真正的竞争。在发布会上，席勒实实在在地把iPad Mini和谷歌的Nexus 7平板电脑放在一起比较。他说，其他一些公司也尝试过生产小型平板电脑，但却实力不够。他指出，iPad Mini比谷歌的平板电脑更轻薄、更耐用，屏幕还更大。

“Others have tried to make tablets smaller than the iPad but they’ve failed miserably,” Mr. Schiller said at the press conference here while showing screenshots of apps running on the Nexus 7 and iPad Mini side by side.

在圣何塞的新闻发布会上，席勒一边展示Nexus 7和iPad Mini运行应用软件的屏显图片，对两种机型进行比较，一边说，“别的公司试过生产比iPad更小的平板电脑，但却一败涂地。”迄今为止，苹果已经卖出了1亿台iPad，仍然称霸市场。弗雷斯特研究公司的分析师萨拉·鲁特曼·艾珀斯(Sarah Rotman Epps)说，尽管如此，如果苹果能早一点推出更小更便宜的iPad，那就可以多卖1500万台平板电脑了。

Apple still dominates the market with 100 million iPads sold to date. But that could have been 15 million more tablets if it had had a smaller, cheaper version of the iPad on the market earlier, said Sarah Rotman Epps, a Forrester analyst.

她说，“与其把低端市场拱手让给亚马逊和谷歌，苹果更想自己占据这一市场。在低端市场还没有变成大问题的时候，苹果就采取了行动，非常聪明。”

“Rather than cede the low end of the market to Amazon and Google, they’d prefer to take it themselves,” she said. “Apple is smart to be acting before it gets to be more of a problem.”

艾珀斯说，更小更便宜的iPad可以招徕更多女性买家，因为它更容易放进坤包。此外，它很可能会在中国等不是特别富裕的国家取得更好的业绩。在那些国家，iPad的需求比不上较为便宜的安卓平板电脑。

Ms. Rotman Epps said that the smaller, cheaper iPad could broaden its appeal to women, because it can more easily fit into a purse. And it would probably also have better luck in less wealthy countries like China, where iPad demand has been slow compared to cheaper Android tablets.

iPad Mini的内部配置与其他苹果移动设备不相上下，包括一个新的A5处理器，闪电接口和一个500万像素的摄像头。但是，这款小型平板电脑没有配备大号产品的高清Retina显示屏，这应该是为了达到轻薄的效果。

The insides of the iPad Mini are on par with Apple’s other mobile devices: It includes a new processor called the A5, the Lightning connector and a 5-megapixel camera. The smaller tablet does not, however, have the high-resolution Retina display of its bigger counterpart, presumably to keep it thinner and lighter.

Apple also introduced a family of new Macs, including upgrades for the MacBook Pro, iMac and Mac Mini. The 13-inch MacBook Pro notebook now includes a high-resolution Retina display, similar to the display technology on the current iPads and iPhones. Mr. Schiller said the screen on the new notebook had twice the pixels of a high-definition television. The iMac is 80 percent thinner and 8 pounds lighter than its predecessor.

The new iPads will begin shipping Nov. 2, and two weeks later the version with a cellular connection will ship.

苹果还推出了一系列新型Mac，包括MacBook Pro、iMac和Mac Mini的升级版。现在，13英寸的MacBook Pro笔记本电脑有了高清的Retina显示屏，显示技术跟现有的iPad和iPhone类似。席勒说，新笔记本电脑的屏幕像素比高清电视高一倍。iMac比上一代产品薄80%，重量也减轻了8磅。新的iPad将从11月2日开始发货，普通版本发货两周之后，有蜂窝数据连接的版本就会发货。