手机竞争别忽略了诺基亚

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.
当谷歌(Google)挑战iPhone闹得沸沸扬扬之际，人们很容易忽略手机市场那个步履艰难的巨人。诺基亚(Nokia)的手机销量占全球三分之一以上，但它在制造智能手机的竞争中，被对手以巧计胜出，并远远地落在了后面。这件事情比看起来更严重。
　　
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.
去年第三季度，智能手机只占诺基亚手机净销售量的15%，却贡献了45%的净销售额。诺基亚虽然占据着智能手机市场的最大份额，但苹果公司(Apple)、RIM和使用谷歌Android操作系统的竞争对手正在蚕食它的地盘。尽管诺基亚去年把10%左右的净销售额用在了研发上，但其自有的软件和操作系统组合，却遭到了软件开发者的抵制和消费者的冷遇。自2008年以来，它的营运利润率已下降近一半。
　　
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.
诺基亚是否应该承认在软件方面落败？我们目前尚不清楚，智能手机领域究竟能够支持多少种相互竞争的操作系统。诺基亚可以放弃其自有软件战略，转而把手机挂靠在Android平台上，成为一家单纯的硬件企业。但管理层不愿支持这种做法，是可以理解的。诺基亚在硬件制造方面技艺卓绝——而且向来如此——但在智能手机领域，要想从硬件制造中获利，将十分困难。诺基亚最不希望看到的结果就是，自己到头来变成像PC领域失宠的硬件制造商戴尔(Dell)那样的企业。
　　
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.
因此，诺基亚重振自身软件战略，是正确之举。诺基亚今年已承诺提高易用性，并为编写应用程序的开发者提供激励。投资者已注意到，过去一年里诺基亚股价的表现落后大盘约30%。投资者正失去耐性。他们将要求诺基亚在2010年作出改善。否则，可能是时候来“考虑一下无法想象的事情”(think the unthinkable)了。