三星魅力直逼苹果

Samsung Electronics Co. is succeeding where other technology companies have tried and failed: closing the coolness gap with Apple Inc.
其他科技公司曾尝试缩小与苹果公司(Apple Inc.AAPL+1.88%)的魅力差距，但都以失败告终。而三星电子(Samsung Electronics Co.)却在这方面取得了成功。

The deep-pocketed Korean company has used a combination of engineering prowess, manufacturing heft and marketing savvy to create smartphones that can rival the iPhone in both sales and appeal.
这家财大气粗的韩国公司利用自己在设计、制造和营销方面的能力和经验，推出了销量和魅力都可与iPhone比肩的智能手机。

Samsung, the market leader in smartphones, on Friday said its fourth-quarter profit surged 76% to a record high on the strength of smartphone sales, including its Galaxy S line. The latest version is considered comparable by many shoppers in both design and technical features.
身为智能手机市场领头羊的三星在上周五说，借助Galaxy S系列等智能手机的强劲销售，它在第四季度的利润猛增76%，达到创纪录的水平。很多消费者觉得，三星最新款智能手机无论是设计还是技术参数都可与苹果媲美。

Apple, meanwhile, reignited concerns about demand for its iPhone 5 after reporting flat earnings for the holiday quarter, sending its stock down 14% in the past two days. The stock has also dropped 37% since hitting an all-time high on Sept. 19, just two days before the iPhone 5 launched in stores.
与此同时，苹果报告假日购物期所在季度利润平平，再次引燃人们对iPhone 5需求的担忧，导致该公司股价在过去两个交易日下跌14%。苹果股价曾在2012年9月19日、即iPhone 5上市两天之前达到历史最高水平，此后已经下跌37%。

At that time, Samsung had just unleashed an aggressive marketing campaign including a television commercial that poked fun at the iPhone 5. 'The next big thing is already here,' the spot said, referring to its Galaxy S III phone.
当时，三星刚刚打响了一场咄咄逼人的营销战，包括一则拿iPhone 5开玩笑的电视广告。广告语是“下一件了不起的东西已经在这了”，这件东西便是三星Galaxy S III手机。

The ad was part of a more than $200 million U.S. marketing blitz that Samsung launched in 2011 to lampoon Apple, according to Kantar Media. The creative vision for those ads was a former Nike executive, Todd Pendleton, who now runs Samsung's marketing in the U.S.
包括这条广告在内，三星自2011年以来在美国发起了一场嘲讽苹果的闪电营销战，据广告信息研究公司Kantar Media的数据，营销活动花费超过2亿美元。广告的创意来自曾任耐克(NikeNKE-1.06%)高管、现在负责三星美国营销的彭德尔顿(Todd Pendleton)。

The campaign swayed consumers including Will Hernandez, an Apple iPhone owner who bought a Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone about three months ago after seeing Samsung's ads.
营销战动摇了包括赫尔南德斯(Will Hernandez)在内的消费者。约三个月之前，本来使用苹果iPhone的赫尔南德斯看到三星的广告，然后买了一部Galaxy S III。

'If you see this stuff on TV enough, it gets you thinking,' said Mr. Hernandez, a 34-year-old resident of Somerville, Mass., who adds that he likes how his Galaxy has a larger screen than the iPhone. 'Now, when someone gives me an iPhone to look at a picture, it looks so tiny.'
家住马萨诸塞州萨默维尔、现年34岁的赫尔南德斯说，在电视上看这种广告看多了，它就会让你开始考虑。赫尔南德斯说，他喜欢Galaxy屏幕比iPhone更大这一点。他说：现在，当别人把iPhone拿过来让我看一张照片的时候，我就觉得它实在太小了。

The marketing onslaught is helping Samsung widen the gap as the market leader. Samsung is estimated to have held 28% of the global smartphone market last year, up from 20% a year earlier, according to IHS iSuppli. Apple's share, meanwhile, isn't rising as quickly, moving to 20.5% in 2012 from 19% a year earlier.
营销战正在帮助三星扩大其市场领导者的优势地位。据IHS iSuppli估计，去年三星掌握了全球智能手机市场28%的份额，高于上一年的20%。而苹果市场份额的扩大则没有这么快，仅从2011年的19%上升到2012年的20.5%。

Despite Samsung's advances, Apple generates higher revenue and its profit in the latest quarter was twice as large as Samsung's. And even after its stock slump, Apple's market value of $413 billion is nearly double Samsung's $217 billion market cap.
尽管三星一路高歌猛进，但苹果的收入还是更高，最新一个季度的利润更是达到三星的两倍。而且即便是在股价大幅下跌之后，苹果4,130亿美元的市值也接近三星2,170亿美元市值的两倍。

A Samsung spokesman in Seoul declined to make executives available. An Apple spokeswoman declined to make executives available for interviews, but reiterated recent comments by Chief Executive Tim Cook. Mr. Cook has said Apple is 'unwilling to cut corners in delivering the best customer experience in the world.'
三星驻首尔发言人不让采访高管。苹果一位发言人拒绝安排高管接受采访，但她重申了苹果首席执行长库克(Tim Cook)的话。库克曾说，苹果在提供世界上最佳用户体验方面不愿走捷径。

While many analysts agree that Samsung isn't as innovative as Apple in terms of design and software capability, it has been able to match other electronics companies' products at a cheaper price.
虽然许多分析人士都认为，三星在设计和软件能力方面并不像苹果那样具有创新性，但三星一直能够以较低的价格生产出与其他电子产品公司相匹敌的产品。

Samsung's high-end smartphones are priced similarly to their iPhone counterparts in the U.S. But Samsung's devices have been significantly discounted at times, to less than a quarter of the sticker price in some cases.
在美国市场，三星高端智能手机的定价与相互竞争的iPhone手机处于同一水平。但三星的手机不时会大幅打折，某些产品的打折价会低到不及产品标价的四分之一。

Samsung owns its own manufacturing facilities where it builds screens, chips and other parts, allowing it to cut costs to make smartphones in a way that few other manufacturers can. Apple designs its own devices and some of the technologies it uses, but it relies on other companies, including Samsung, to help build its iPhones.
三星拥有自己的生产设施，它在那里生产显示屏、芯片和其他零部件。这使得它在生产智能手机时能将成本削减到其他生产商几乎难以企及的程度。虽然苹果负责设计自己的产品并开发一些生产其产品所用的技术，但它却需要靠包括三星在内的其他公司来帮助其生产iPhone。

At the same time, the Korean electronics maker has capitalized on what Apple wasn't doing in the smartphone market. Even as Apple stuck to one new model each year with a narrow price band, Samsung released multiple smartphones in various shapes and sizes and with features such as larger screens.
与此同时，三星一直通过做那些苹果在智能手机市场上没有做的事来获利。就在苹果坚持每年只发布一款新手机、并将产品的价格区间限制得很窄之际，三星却会同时发布多款手机，它们具有不同的外形和尺寸，并具备了更大的显示屏等特点。

Samsung was also quick to embrace Google Inc.'s Android mobile software just as the operating system was becoming popular with consumers. That enabled the company to become the leading vendor of Android phones in the U.S.
谷歌公司(Google Inc.GOOG+0.39%)开发的手机操作系统软件安卓(Android)刚一受到消费者的追捧，三星就迅速采用了它。这使得三星成为美国市场上最大的安卓手机提供商。