微软向简约美学努力靠拢

Microsoft’s Struggle to Make Things Simple for Consumers
By NICK BILTON August 07, 2013

微软向简约美学努力靠拢
NICK BILTON 2013年08月07日
In March 2006, a [要查看本链接请先注册并登录] asked, “What if Microsoft made the iPod?” The clip began with an image of the real packaging for an iPod, that familiar white box with a single picture of the music player. Then, bit by bit, it added what would happen if Microsoft got involved.
2006年3月，一段滑稽的模仿视频提出一个问题，“如果iPod是微软公司(Microsoft)制造的，会怎么样？”这段视频以iPod的真正包装开始，也就是那个大家熟悉的、上面只印着这款音乐播放器图片的白盒子。然后，视频开始一点一点地添加东西，假想着如果微软公司参与设计，盒子会如何变化。
By the end of three minutes, the dainty music player had been renamed the iPod Pro 2005 XP Human Ear Professional Edition With Subscription, and the stark box was sullied with stickers and jargon promoting almost every technical feature on the device. A design inspired by modernist architecture (think the Guggenheim Museum) was turned into a gaudy billboard (think a trinket store in Times Square).
到这个3分钟视频结束时，小巧的音乐播放器已经被更名为"iPod Pro 2005 XP人耳专业版(包括订阅)"(Human Ear Professional Edition With Subscription)，而那个素白的盒子则被贴签和术语沾污，它们推销着这个播放器的几乎所有功能。一个受现代主义建筑启发的设计（想想古根海姆博物馆[Guggenheim Museum]）变成了一个俗气的广告牌（想想时报广场[Times Square]上的一个旅游商品店）。
In recent years, Microsoft has been trying to [要查看本链接请先注册并登录] for trumpeting features over simplicity, but old habits are proving hard to break. Yes, Microsoft has released products like the Xbox and Windows Phone 7 that were intuitive to consumers and marketed with a fair amount of finesse. But far too often, the company has tried to create products for the modern consumer with a mind-set from the information technology back room.
最近几年，微软公司开始试图摆脱自己的名声，好像吹嘘功能比追求简洁更重要，但发现旧习难改。不错，微软公司已经推出了像Xbox和Windows Phone 7这样的对消费者来说用起来比较直觉的产品，产品的推销也颇为巧妙。但更经常发生的是，公司仍在用来自信息技术封闭室的思维方式，为现代消费者创造产品。
[要查看本图请先注册并登录]
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
去年十月，微软公司首席执行官史蒂文·A·鲍尔默在推介Window 8和Su***ce平板电脑。
And there are consequences for this disconnect beyond satirical videos. Microsoft said this month that it was taking a $900 million write-down for unsold inventory of the Su***ce RT tablet, which went on sale less than a year ago.
这种脱节的后果不只是讽刺的视频。微软本月（指7月——编注）宣布，由于卖不出去的Su***ce RT平板电脑的库存，需要一次性地削减公司帐面资产9亿美元（相当于55亿元人民币），这款产品不到一年前才上市。
Just thinking about the Microsoft Su***ce tablets is a head-scratcher. The company offered two products, the Su***ce RT and the Su***ce Pro. One came with a pen. They both had USB ports, microSDXC card slots, HD video ports, flip-back stands, different screen resolutions and two types of Windows software.
就拿微软的Su***ce平板电脑来说，那真是让人丈二和尚摸不着头脑。公司推出了两款产品，Su***ce RT和Su***ce Pro。其中一款还带着一只笔。这两款产品都有USB插口、微型SDXC卡插口、HD视频接口、后翻支架，不同的屏幕分辨率，还有两种不同的Windows软件。
If all that confused you, you are not alone. While the technologically savvy most likely lapped up those features, average consumers did not.
如果你被这一切所困惑，你绝非个例。虽然技术高人们很可能对这些功能垂涎不已，但普通消费者就不那么看了。
“Windows is a hammer, and everything looks like a nail” to Microsoft, said [要查看本链接请先注册并登录], a former editor at Engadget and a co-founder of Gdgt, a gadget Web site. “You can look at the Su***ce, which is the best example; they created this totally blown-out tablet based around Windows and Windows-like experiences that didn’t translate” for most people.
Engadget网站前编辑及小设备网站Gdgt联合创始人之一瑞安·布洛克([要查看本链接请先注册并登录])说，“Windows是一把锤子，对微软来说，所有的东西看起来都像钉子。你可以看看Su***ce，它是个最好的例子；他们基于Windows和类似Windows的经验，创造了这个臃肿的平板电脑”，而对大多数人来说，“这毫无意义。”
Microsoft enthusiasts and some pundits came to the company’s defense last week, saying that the Su***ce had failed because the iPad hit the market years earlier and had too much of a head start.
上周，微软发烧友和一些专家为这家公司辩护，他们说Su***ce的失败是因为iPad几年前就已经上市，领先了很多。
Maybe. But I have a different theory: the Su***ce failed because Microsoft confused consumers who didn’t want to think about RT or Pro or what version of Windows their new device would run.
或许如此。但我的看法不同：Su***ce失败是因为微软公司让消费者感到困惑，他们不愿意考虑RT还是Pro的选择，或他们的新设备上运行哪个版本的Windows系统。
“The people in Redmond have a fundamental misunderstanding of what users are looking for, which is not speeds and feeds,” said J. P. Gownder, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research. (Microsoft is based in Redmond, Wash.)
弗雷斯特研究公司(Forrester Research)副总裁兼首席分析师J·P·高恩德(J. P. Gownder)说，“呆在雷德蒙德的人根本理解错了用户到底需要什么，他们要的并不是速度和功能。”（微软公司总部位于华盛顿州的雷德蒙德。）
“Speeds and feeds” is an old trade magazine term for the technical specifications of a new PC. Fifteen years ago, that a computer was a little bit faster or had more memory than the last version was a very big deal. The string of numbers and jargon on the side of a computer’s box was a sort of runic code that made sense to I.T. managers or tech-savvy relatives coerced into helping the less sophisticated. It told them what to buy.
“速度和功能”是行业杂志评价新PC机技术参数的老词。15年前，一台新计算机如果比上一个版本的运行速度稍微快一点，或是有更多的内存，就很不错了。计算机包装盒上边的一连串数字和专业术语像是一种神秘的代码，只有技术经理或被拉来帮人买计算机的更懂技术的亲戚能读懂。这些参数告诉他们该买那种。
That is just not the case anymore. Consumers demand something that is easy to understand, and they got that in products like the iPad.
这种情况已经成为过去。消费者要求更容易懂的东西，在像iPad这样的产品上，他们的需求得到了满足。
There is one flaw in the theory that Microsoft’s tablet did not catch on because the iPad was already popular: Microsoft was late to the game, but it was hardly late to the idea. The company helped popularize the term “tablet PC” when Bill Gates [要查看本链接请先注册并登录] at the annual Comdex computer show in Las Vegas.
说微软公司的平板电脑没能赶上，是因为iPad已经占领了市场，这个观点有一个漏洞：虽然微软公司推出产品的时间较晚，但它产生这类产品想法的时间一点也不晚。2000年当比尔·盖茨(Bill Gates)在拉斯维加斯每年一度的Comdex电脑展示会上引入平板PC时，是微软公司帮助普及了“平板PC”这个词。
But it was Apple, a decade later, that figured out how to simplify the tablet and sell it to mainstream customers.
但是，是苹果公司(Apple)在10年之后，首先实现了平板电脑的简化，把它卖给了主流消费者。
Microsoft says one of the reasons the company does offer all of these features — and feels the need to explain its gigahertz and gigabytes — is that it has to market its products to small businesses and I.T. professionals, and they still obsess over bigger, better, faster.
微软公司称，之所以提供所有这些功能的原因之一是，公司的市场销售也必须针对小企业和IT专业人士，公司有必要标明千兆赫兹和千兆字节，是因为这些人依然有更大、更好、更快的情结。
That’s where technology culture runs into consumer culture, and the two clash.
这就是技术文化和消费者文化交汇的地方，而两者在这里撞了车。
Frank X. Shaw, Microsoft’s vice president for corporate communications, said the company was trying to do something about that. He said Microsoft had made great strides to instill a more balanced culture of design, marketing and engineering, and executives there said a reorganization [要查看本链接请先注册并登录] would inspire more consumer-friendly offerings.
微软公司负责企业交流的副总裁弗兰克·X·肖(Frank X. Shaw)称，公司正试图改变这种状况。他说微软已经在为注入更平衡的设计、营销和工程文化上迈出了很大的步伐。公司的高管称，本月宣布的重组计划将会启发出更多对用户友好的产品设计。
Microsoft said it was dissolving its eight product divisions in favor of four new ones arranged around more specific themes. “To execute, we’ve got to move from multiple Microsofts to one Microsoft,” Steven A. Ballmer, the company’s chief executive, told my colleague Nick Wingfield in an interview.
微软公司称正在解散八个产品部门，根据更具体的主题组建四个新部门。公司首席执行官史蒂文·A·鲍尔默(Steven A. Ballmer)在一次采访中对我的同事尼克·温菲尔德(Nick Wingfield)说，“为了实施方案，我们必须要把多个微软变为一个微软。”
“Are we an engineering-focused culture? Yes, we are, and that’s good. Most great technology companies, at their core, have a deep engineering bias,” Mr. Shaw said. “One of the goals is to make sure we have a more singular vision for what we’re offering to people.”
肖说，“我们的文化是以工程为核心吗？是的，我们是这样的，这很好。大多数伟大的技术公司的核心都具有深深的工程偏好。我们的目标之一，是确保对我们给人们所提供的东西有更卓越的眼光。”
A few months after the satirical iPod video first drew attention online, Microsoft acknowledged that it had been responsible for the video. Turns out, it was meant to be circulated internally to show how the company needed to change its culture.
在那段讽刺视频首次在网上引起关注的几个月后，微软承认视频是公司自己制作的。原来，那段视频本来是为内部交流之用，目的是为了展示公司需要怎样改变其文化。
I asked Mr. Shaw about the iPod clip, and he said Microsoft had evolved from an insular technology culture to one that is more aware of customers’ needs.
我向肖提起那段iPod视频，他说微软已经从与世隔绝的技术文化中走了出来，向更加关注消费者需求的方向转变。
“I think we’re significantly better,” he said, while acknowledging that the company still had work to do. “The question is, How do you mirror engineering with equally strong skills in design and marketing? If you’re overly strong in any of those areas, odd things can happen.”
“我认为我们有了很大的进步”，他说，同时他承认公司仍要继续努力，“问题是，你怎样在设计和销售中体现出与工程能力同样强大的能力？如果在这几个方面的任何一个上过于强大，怪事情就会发生。”
He’s right. Odd things like Microsoft’s convoluted Su***ce tablets.
他说得对。像微软的十分复杂的Su***ce平板电脑那样的怪事情发生了。