日本因何丧失电子业霸主地位?

To compound matters, the strong yen has made it more difficult to follow up new innovations with the requisite cost reductions to appeal to the mass market. For cutting-edge products, Japanese firms often rely on domestic production and then sell the goods abroad. The strong yen, near record levels, has narrowed the profit margin of Japanese goods sold abroad - a problem that Korean manufacturers have avoided with the relatively weaker won. The erosion in earnings has also made it difficult to invest in future products and technologies.
日本丧失行业领先地位的最新例证是，在开发有可能成为下一代电视的主导性技术标准──有机发光二极管（OLED）的竞争中，该国企业又处于落后境地。这种新型显示器更薄而且能耗更低。

In the latest example of the country's lose-the-lead affliction, Japanese companies are falling behind in the race to develop what is likely to become the dominant technology format for next-generation televisions: OLEDs, or organic light emitting diodes. The new displays are thinner and require less energy.
韩国顶级电视制造商三星已经在小型OLED显示屏市场占据主导地位，这种屏幕常用于智能手机和其他移动设备中。如今，三星及其本土竞争对手LG Electronics均计划在今年晚些时候推出55英寸的OLED电视。

Samsung, Korea's top TV maker, already dominates the market for smaller-size OLED displays featured in smartphones and other mobile devices. Now Samsung and domestic rival LG Electronics Co. each plans to launch a 55-inch OLED television later this year.
与索尼、松下、夏普和东芝(Toshiba Corp.)这些日本企业相比，这是一个很大的进步，这些公司花费了多年时间研发这一技术，同时也在苦苦思索如何将其商业化。为了试着缩小与韩国竞争对手的差距，索尼和松下这两个宿怨已久的对手史无前例地在6月同意结成联盟，共同开发OLED生产技术。

It is a major step forward compared to the Japanese firms - Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, and Toshiba Corp. - that have spent years developing the technology while struggling with how to commercialize it. In an attempt to close the gap on their Korean rivals, Sony and Panasonic, once bitter rivals, agreed to an uNPRecedented alliance in June to develop OLED production technology together.
这是索尼的悲惨衰落，索尼五年前就已成为首家销售OLED电视的制造商。当时索尼的高管大赞它是“索尼复兴的标志”。这个11英寸机型的屏幕大概只有1/10英寸厚，是一个技术上的奇迹。然而，高达2,500美元的价格使这款OLED电视在财务收益方面大败。

That is a poignant comedown for Sony, which five years ago became the first manufacturer to sell an OLED television. At the time, company executives hailed it a 'symbol of Sony's comeback.' The 11-inch model - with a screen about one-tenth of an inch thick - was a technological marvel. But at $2,500 a pop, the OLED television was a financial flop.
索尼在OLED电视业务的失败距其在上一代电视技术方面遭遇的相同挫折仅隔了数年时间。2004年，索尼成为首家推出液晶电视的公司，该类电视以亮度更高、也更节能的发光二极管(LED)取代了荧光背光源。此外，索尼还在2008年率先推出第一台在四周的边框配备LED的电视，从而使屏幕变得更薄。

The OLED stumble came just a few years after a similar setback in the last generation of TV technology. In 2004, Sony was the first company to introduce LCD televisions that replaced the TV's fluorescent backlight with brighter and more energy efficient light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. It also introduced the first TV that arranged the LEDs around the edges in 2008 to allow the screens to be thinner.
三星在一年之后推出了其生产的机型，并把它们称为LED电视，以把这种新型电视与当时已有的LCD电视区别开来。这个营销战略获得了成功，三星让消费者花高价购买这种新型LED电视，从而帮助延缓了电视价格的急剧下跌。据市场研究公司NPD统计，在2012年上半年，三星在北美的LED电视市场占据了近半的市场份额，而索尼的排名还没有进入前五。

When Samsung came out with its models a year later, the company called them 'LED TVs,' a moniker to distinguish the new TVs from existing LCD models. The marketing strategy was a success and Samsung was able to get consumers to pay a premium for the new LED models, helping to slow the sharp decline in TV prices. According to research firm NPD, Samsung accounts for nearly half of all the LED televisions sold in North America while Sony did not rank among the top five sellers in the first half of 2012.
在多年都错失机会之后，索尼正式改变了发展方向，认为让三星和其他公司在开发新技术上担任领头羊实际上更加合理。索尼在率先推出突破性技术方面吃尽了苦头，该公司高管得出结论，他们这么做只是让竞争对手有了追赶的目标，并可能以更低的成本进行模仿。

After years of missed chances, Sony has officially shifted gears, deciding that it actually makes more sense to let Samsung and others take the lead in developing new innovations. For all its pains of delivering groundbreaking technologies first, Sony executives concluded they were only creating targets for competitors to pursue and possibly imitate at a cheaper cost.
在今年4月份接掌索尼首席战略长一职的齐藤正(Tadashi Saito)说，领跑者得顶着风，有时候在后面跑会更容易。另一位熟悉索尼想法的高管称，索尼在电视业务上的亏损使其更难在OLED业务上大赌一把。

'The first runner has to face the wind - sometimes, it's easier to run from behind,' said Tadashi Saito, who took over in April as Sony's chief strategy officer. Another official familiar with Sony's thinking said the losses at its television business made it harder to take a 'gamble' on aggressively pursuing OLED.
这与索尼创建初期的情况存在很大差距，当时创始人盛田昭夫(Akio Morita)和井深大(Masaru Ibuka)为了生产一种新型彩电几乎使公司破产。在1964年发布原型机后，由于资金耗尽，索尼开始努力开发量产技术。索尼花了四年时间进行研发，然后才推出了奠定该公司后来30年成功基础的彩色显像管“特丽珑”。