微软处境不佳 Windows Blue被寄予厚望

A spokesman for Microsoft had no immediate comment Thursday.
微软的一名发言人周四没有立即置评。

Hewlett-Packard Co., the largest PC maker and a major Microsoft customer, showed the steepest decline in shipments in the first quarter, with a 24% drop, according to IDC. H-P's stock fell 6.4% to $20.86 in recent trading.
根据国际数据公司的数据，惠普(Hewlett-Packard Co.)第一季度的出货量降幅最大，达到24%。该公司是全球最大的个人电脑制造商，也是微软的主要客户。惠普股价最近下跌了6.4%，至20.86美元。

But executives at Microsoft and partners such as Intel Corp. have acknowledged there is more work to do to encourage a wider array of touch-screen computing devices powered by Windows 8, and at lower price points.
但是微软以及英特尔(Intel Corp.)等合作伙伴的高管们承认，要想鼓励电脑厂商们推出更多更便宜的Windows 8触屏电脑设备，还有很多工作要做。

Intel, which supplies microprocessors that serve as calculating engines in most PCs, is emphasizing a new line of battery-conserving chips that is known by the code name Haswell. The chips are expected to display much more sophisticated graphics and extend battery life on portable computers to eight to 10 hours.
英特尔为大多数个人电脑提供微处理器，微处理器相当于电脑中的计算引擎。英特尔目前正在专注于一个代号为Haswell的新型节电芯片产品系列。这些芯片预计将能够展示更复杂的图形，将便携电脑的续航时间延长到八至10小时。

Microsoft also has offered price breaks on its Windows software meant for a new class of simple PCs known as netbooks and seems to be responding to a market shift in consumer demand toward smaller tablets.
微软还下调了一些Windows软件的价格。这些软件针对的是被称作上网本的新一类简化个人电脑。与此同时，该公司似乎正在对消费者需求转向更小尺寸的平板电脑做出回应。

The company last year entered the market itself with the tablet known as Surface, just as products such as Apple Inc.'s iPad Mini spurred demand for smaller models. Microsoft is now preparing a similarly small model with a seven-inch display, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
微软去年凭借Surface平板电脑进入这一市场。当时，苹果公司(Apple Inc.)的iPad Mini等产品刺激了消费者对更小型号平板电脑的需求。《华尔街日报》周三报道说，微软正在准备一款类似的小型平板电脑，这款平板电脑将拥有7英寸的显示屏。

Executives at Intel and Microsoft have said they expect new computer chips and other advancements to drive down the cost of touch-screen laptops to as low as $500 or $600. For now, there are very few Windows 8 touch-screen computers on the market for less than $550.
英特尔和微软的高管说，他们预计新的电脑芯片和其他方面的改进将使触屏笔记本电脑的成本降至500美元或600美元。目前，市场上几乎没有价格低于550美元的Windows 8触屏电脑。

Some on Wall Street aren't waiting for a new spark for PC and tablet demand. Analysts at Goldman Sachs and Nomura Securities downgraded their recommendations on Microsoft shares on Thursday, contributing to a selloff in the company's shares.
华尔街的一些人并没有耐心等待个人电脑和平板电脑需求获得新的提振。高盛(Goldman Sachs)和野村证券(Nomura Securities)的分析师周四下调了对微软股票的评级，导致该公司股票被抛售。

Goldman said investors should sell Microsoft shares, while Nomura downgraded the stock to 'neutral' from 'buy.'
高盛说，投资者应卖出微软股票。而野村证券则将这只股票的评级从“买进”下调至“中性”。

Goldman Sachs said Microsoft needed to do more to court consumers rather than the corporate customers that are Microsoft's major source of profits.
高盛说，微软需要采取更多行动来迎合消费者，而不是作为微软主要利润来源的企业客户。