(单词翻译:单击)
英语原文
The growing popularity of electronic books could offer hope for newspapers
THINGS are suddenly hotting up in the rather obscure field of electronic books and their associated reading devices, the best known of which is Amazon’s Kindle. A new, sleeker version of the Kindle was unveiled on February 9th. Just days earlier, Google said it was making 1.5m free e-books available in a format suitable for smart-phones, such as Apple’s iPhone and handsets powered by Google’s Android software. Amazon said it was working to make e-books available on smart-phones as well as the Kindle. Plastic Logic, the maker of a forthcoming e-reader device, said it had struck distribution deals with several magazines and newspapers. The iPhone, meanwhile, has quietly become the most widely used e-book reader: more people have downloaded e-book software (such as Stanza, eReader and Classics) for iPhones than have bought Kindles. Might e-books be approaching the moment of take-off, akin to Apple’s launch of the iTunes store in 2003, which created a new market for legal music downloads?
The analogy is informative, and not just because the Kindle is often described as “the iPod of books”. Before Apple moved into music downloads, consumers faced a bewildering array of incompatible and incomplete services, none of which had critical mass, thanks in part to the record companies’ inability to agree on a common format. Apple, not being a record company, was able to broker an agreement and define a standard. At first, there was widespread scepticism that anyone would pay for music downloads, given rampant piracy of music on the internet. But being able to find music quickly and easily, rather than fiddling around with file-sharing software, proved far more popular than expected, and iTunes took off. That has not stopped piracy, and download revenues have not been anywhere near enough to compensate for falling CD sales. But iTunes provided a new model for a troubled industry.
Book publishers are in better shape than record labels. Far from harming sales, the Kindle and the iPhone seem to offer incremental revenue, by making it easier for avid readers to buy more titles. Yet if e-readers do take off, the real beneficiaries could be the ailing newspaper and magazine publishers.
The print media are in an awful state—and not just because advertising revenue always dives in recessions. Thanks to the rise of the internet, much of their business, notably classified ads, is migrating rapidly to the web. Meanwhile, most have failed to find a decent online business model. Giving news away on the internet, as most newspapers do, and selling online advertising alongside it, is not sustainable because the ad rates are so much lower online. Attempts to charge subscription fees or set up “micropayment” schemes have failed.
But consumers treat phones (and Kindles) differently from PCs. People pay for text messages, even though e-mail is free. Apple has sold millions of iPhone applications through the iTunes store. Several newspapers and magazines are already available, by subscription, to Kindle users. As with iTunes, people are happy to pay once it is made easy.
So it is not unreasonable to suppose that someone could step in, as Apple did with music, and introduce a comprehensive and easy-to-use shopfront, through which books, newspapers and magazines could be supplied to paying customers. The convenience of having content delivered to devices automatically overnight, and being able to flick quickly between stories at the breakfast table, when underground or on an aeroplane, might be something that people will pay for. If this approach took off, newspapers would no longer depend on advertisers and could wind down their paper editions. (They could also quietly scale back their free websites.)
How Apple could kill the Kindle
Amazon clearly has designs on this market with the Kindle, even though it is primarily intended for reading e-books. But Apple is arguably in a much stronger position. There are already millions of iPhones and touch-screen iPods in circulation, and the company has long been rumoured to be working on a larger “tablet” device. Selling e-books and newspapers via iTunes, which already has millions of paying customers, would be simple. True, Steve Jobs, Apple’s mercurial boss, has expressed scepticism about e-readers, claiming that “people don’t read any more”. But Mr Jobs has a record of insisting that Apple is not interested in making a particular product (a video iPod, a mobile phone)—right up until the moment when he unveils one. Might e-books soon be the next example?
中文翻译
黯淡的电子书及电子阅读器市场一夜之间开始变得炙手可热。最为著名的电子书阅读器品牌亚马孙Kindle，于今年二月十九日推出了更为时尚的新款型。就在几天之前，Google宣称已将150万册电子书转化为免费的适合用智能电话（诸如苹果的iPhone和安装谷歌 Android操作系统的手机）阅读的格式。亚马孙亦声称其正致力于将智能手机阅读电子书阅读变得可能。作为即将面市的某电子阅读器的制造商，英国塑胶逻辑公司(Plastic logic)则表示已与数家报纸杂志达成分销协议。与此同时，iPhone则低调的成为最为广泛使用的电子书阅读设备---更多的人选择使用iPhone下载安装电子书阅读软件(如Stanza, eReader and Classics等)而非购买Kindle。如此种种是否预示着，正如2003年苹果公司推出iTune音乐商店之后带来合法音乐下载的热潮那样，电子书市场也起飞在即?
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??这种类比无疑是有根据的，不仅仅因为Kindle常被冠以“书中iPod”之称。在苹果公司进军音乐下载之前，消费者们面临着一系列令人眼花缭乱且不可兼容的不完善选择，网络音乐没有任何主流格式，这一点部分归结于唱片公司们无力达成统一。不过，唱片业界外的苹果公司却由此作为中间人协助它们达成协议并制定了统一标准。起初，在网络音乐下载侵权成风的形势下，大多数人对付费下载的市场存有疑虑。但事实证明，由于能够快速便捷的搜索并下载音乐而无需再埋头于文件共享软件， 苹果公司开发出的iTune受到消费者极大的青睐。虽然这样并未阻断侵权，下载获得的收益也从未能够弥补CD销量下滑的缺口，但iTune无疑为饱受困扰的音乐市场提供了一种新模式。
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??相形于唱片公司，图书出版商们有着更好的组织。电子书阅读器并未对图书销售产生负面影响，反之，通过向热切的读者提供更多的消费选择，Kindle和iPhone们似乎带来了利润增长。不过一旦电子阅读器真的实现了快速发展，真正的受益者将会是面临困境的报纸和杂志出版商。
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? 如今的出版界正处于进退维谷的窘境---这并非仅由广告收入纷纷缩减跳水所致。随着因特网的崛起，大部分印刷媒介的业务，尤其是分类广告，正迅速被转移到网络上。然而，绝大多数参与者尚未探寻出一个合适的在线商业模式。鉴于在线广告收取的费用较低，像大多数报纸所做的那样将新闻发布在网上并在一旁安插广告，并不足以维持长期经营。诸如收取订阅费或者办理“小额交易”等的尝试也均以失败而告终。
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但消费者们对待手机（包括kindle）的态度相形于电脑截然不同。即便有免费的电子邮件，人们依然乐意为短信买单。通过iTune音乐商店，苹果公司卖出了数以百万计的iPhone。通过订阅，Kindle的使用者们同样可以浏览数种报纸和杂志。就像使用iTune一样，一旦事情变得轻松便捷，人们将乐于消费。
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??所以，设想有朝一日会有人开发出一种像音乐商店那样全面又易于操作的阅读平台并非没有道理。报纸和杂志将以这种平台为媒介向付费读者们提供资讯。书报的内容在前一晚被自动发送到阅读器上，人们在早餐桌前，地铁里，飞机上都可以快速浏览。这种便利的销售方式具有一定的市场潜力，如果得以实现，报界就无需再依赖广告收入并能够逐渐缩减其纸质印刷版本（同时也可以私下的相应缩减其免费网页）。
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??苹果如何能击败亚马孙Kindle
??显而易见的是，即便设计Kindle的最初目的是用于阅读电子书，亚马孙在这个市场上仍有所规划。但可以说苹果公司拥有更强势的地位。市场上已经流通着数百万计的iPhone和触屏iPod，而且根据长久以来的传言，苹果公司正酝酿着一个更广泛的“平板”设备。通过iTune向业已存在的几百万客户销售电子书和报纸将不是难事。诚然，苹果公司精明的老板史蒂夫·乔布斯（Steve Jobs）曾对电子书阅读器表示质疑，声称“人们已经不再读书”。但就以往的情况看，乔布斯先生曾经在新产品即将发布之前（如ipod视频，移动电话）还一直坚称公司对其并无兴趣，谁又知道电子书会不会很快就成为下一个例证呢？
