创新乏力，NEC宣布退出智能手机领域

NEC of Japan Is Exiting Market for Smartphones
By ERIC PFANNER August 01, 2013

创新乏力，NEC宣布退出智能手机领域
ERIC PFANNER 2013年08月01日
NEC, once the leading cellphone maker in Japan, said on Wednesday that it would quit *** smartphones, acknowledging that it had failed to keep pace with the likes of Apple and Samsung Electronics.
周三，曾经是日本手机制造业领军者的日本电气(NEC)称，它将不再生产智能手机，并承认不敌苹果公司(Apple)及三星电子(Samsung Electronics)等公司。
The retreat in the face of competition from an American and a South Korean company highlighted the country’s shift from electronics industry leader to laggard over the course of the last decade.
面对一家美国公司及一家韩国公司的竞争而退缩，这突显了日本在过去10年已经从电子产业的领导者变成落后者。
“We were late to enter the smartphone market, and we were unable to develop attractive products,” Isamu Kawashima, the chief financial officer of NEC, said at a news conference here. “That’s what it comes down to.”
NEC首席财务长川岛勇(Isamu Kawashima)在日本的一次新闻发布会上说，“我们在智能手机市场上是后来者，我们没能开发出具有吸引力的产品。这就是根本原因。”

Like other Japanese phone makers, NEC clung to old-fashioned flip phones — great for *** phone calls, taking pictures or playing simple games, but not for much else — as rivals elsewhere were developing smartphones that put the entire Internet and more in users’ pockets. The first NEC smartphone did not appear until 2011, four years after Apple’s iPhone.
NEC和其他日本手机制造商一样，仍然坚持制造老式的翻盖手机。打电话、拍照、玩简单游戏都很棒，但是要做更多的就不行了。而别国竞争对手开发的智能手机，却把整个互联网以及更多东西都装到了用户的口袋里。2011年，NEC才推出了第一部智能手机，比苹果的iPhone晚了四年。
The strategic failure left NEC with hundreds of millions of dollars in losses as its share of the Japanese cellphone market slipped into the single digits. It also landed yet another blow to corporate Japan’s once vaunted reputation for innovation.
NEC因为这一战略失误，损失了数亿美元，在日本手机市场所占份额也跌至个位数。这也再次打击了日本企业界曾经自夸的创新声誉。
“NEC was like the face of the Japanese phone industry,” said Nobuyuki Hayashi, a technology consultant and writer. “Losing them will be very upsetting for those who take pride in Japanese manufacturing.”
科技顾问及作者林信行(Nobuyuki Hayashi)说，“NEC就像是日本手机产业的招牌。失去它们将会让那些以日本制造业为豪的人感到非常失望。”
NEC’s surrender is the latest consolidation in the country’s cellphone industry. In 2010, NEC absorbed the remnants of the mobile phone divisions of two other Japanese stalwarts, Casio and Hitachi, with NEC holding a controlling stake. In 2008, Kyocera acquired the phone-*** arm of Sanyo. In 2010, Fujitsu and Toshiba combined their handset businesses; Fujitsu bought out its partner last year. Mitsubishi, another big electronics company, got out of the phone business entirely.
NEC放弃制造智能手机，是日本手机业最近的一次整合。2010年，NEC吸收了日本另外两家骨干企业卡西欧(Casio)和日立(Hitachi)在手机领域所剩的资产，NEC取得控股权。2008年，京瓷公司(Kyocera)收购了三洋电机(Sanyo)的手机制造业务。2010年，富士通(Fujitsu)和东芝(Toshiba)合并了他们的手机业务；富士通于去年买下了其合作者。另一家大电子公司三菱(Mitsubishi)则彻底放弃了手机业务。
Analysts say NEC and other Japanese cellphone makers were tied too closely to Japanese network operators, developing what has come to be known in that country as a “Galápagos” effect; devices were cut off from the evolution of the phone business elsewhere. As a result, the makers failed to grasp the significance of the rise of the smartphone.
分析人士称，NEC及其他日本手机制造商与日本网络运营商捆绑过紧，形成了日本所谓的“加拉帕戈斯效应”（Galápagos effect，指某种产业或者产品只在某国国内占有较大市场份额，并形成孤立市场——译注）。日本的手机完全隔绝于别国手机业务的进化。所以，日本手机制造商没能意识到智能手机崛起的重要性。
As Japanese consumers embraced the smartphone in a big way, the companies had nothing to offer. Although flip phones from NEC and other Japanese makers are still in wide use in the country, smartphones now make up a majority of new sales. Japanese brands struggle to compete with imported smartphones, especially the iPhone.
当日本消费者大举拥抱智能手机的时候，日本这些公司却拿不出任何产品。尽管很多日本人仍然在使用NEC及其他日本生产商的翻盖手机，但智能手机现在已占到新销售额的大部分。日本品牌努力与进口的智能手机竞争，尤其是iPhone。
“As the market for mobile phone handsets, including the rapid spread of smartphones, has dramatically changed, economies of scale have become increasingly important for the maintenance and strengthening of competitiveness,” NEC said in a frank statement. “However, NEC’s mobile phone handset shipments are following a downward trend, and it is difficult to foresee improved performance in the future.”
NEC在一份坦诚的声明中说，“随着手机市场发生翻天覆地的变化，包括智能手机迅速普及，对于保持和加强竞争力，规模经济已变得越来越重要。然而，NEC的手机发货量却一直在下降，而且很难说将来会有所改善。”
By last year, Apple had become the market leader in Japan, where the iPhone had won 25.5 percent of overall cellphone sales, according to the MM Research Institute. Even Samsung, which has been slower to establish a foothold in Japan than elsewhere, surpassed NEC last year, with a 7.2 percent market share.
MM总研株式会社(MM Research Institute)称，到去年，苹果已经变成了日本手机市场的领军者。iPhone已赢得日本手机总销售量的25.5%。三星在日本取得稳固地位的过程要比在其他国家慢，但是也在去年以7.2%的市场份额超过了NEC。
In smartphones, Apple is even more dominant, with 40 percent of the Japanese market in the first quarter, according to another research firm, IDC.
另外一家研究公司IDC称，在智能手机市场，苹果的占有率更高。在第一季度，占到日本市场的40%。
“There will be further consolidation in the industry,” said Jean-Philippe Biragnet, a partner at the Bain & Company consulting firm in Tokyo. “There is not space for more than two or three of these players. The question is, Who?”
东京的贝恩咨询公司(Bain & Company)合伙人让-菲利普·比拉涅(Jean-Philippe Biragnet)说，“该行业会进一步整合，没有空间容纳超过两到三家这样的公司。问题是，究竟是哪几家？”
Among the domestic brands, the leaders last year, according to MM, were Fujitsu, with a 14.4 percent share of the overall mobile phone market; Sharp, with 14 percent; and Sony, with 9.8 percent.
MM称，去年国内品牌的翘楚是富士通，占到了整个手机市场的14.4%；夏普(Sharp)占14%；索尼(Sony)占9.8%。
Panasonic and Kyocera are much weaker, though they were slightly ahead of NEC, whose share of the business had fallen to about 5 percent last year from nearly 28 percent in 2001, according to MM.
MM称，松下(Panasonic)和京瓷的市场份额更小，尽管他们比NEC略微领先；NEC的市场份额由2001年的近28%,跌到了去年的约5%。
Among the remaining contenders, only Sony has a significant presence outside Japan. The other Japanese phone makers have been outflanked at the high end of the smartphone business by Apple, Samsung and others, and at the low end by a growing number of Chinese manufacturers.
在剩下的竞争者中，只有索尼在日本之外的市场上占有重要份额。其余日本手机制造商在高端智能手机市场上被苹果、三星等公司赶超，在低端机市场上被越来越多的中国生产商超越。
NEC was in talks with one of the Chinese companies, Lenovo, about a partnership aimed at saving the smartphone business, but the negotiations broke down several weeks ago, *** the company’s announcement Wednesday inevitable, analysts said.
分析人士称，NEC曾经与其中一家中国公司联想商谈合作，旨在拯救NEC的智能手机业务。但是几周前谈判破裂，公司不得不于周三做出那份声明。
For fans of retro-styled Japanese flip phones, which have come to be known here as “gara-kei,” short for “Galápagos phone,” there was at least one saving grace in NEC’s announcement. The company said that even though it was quitting the smartphone business, it would continue “developing and producing conventional mobile handsets.”
复古样式的日本翻盖手机在这里被称为“加拉机”(gara-kei)，是“加拉帕戈斯手机”(Galápagos phone)的简称。对于这种手机的追捧者来说，NEC的声明还不算一无是处。公司称，尽管不再制造智能手机，还是会继续“开发并生产传统手机”。