What Samsung lacks inoriginality, it has always made up for with speed.

三星(Samsung)一直用速度来弥补自己在原创性上的不足。

With the Galaxy Note 7, it went too fast.

就Galaxy Note 7而言，它的速度有点太快了。

Samsung’s ignominiouswithdrawal of its smartphone over the tendency of its batteries to overheat andcatch fire, has happened rapidly.

三星因Note 7电池容易过热和着火撤下了这款手机，这一有失颜面的举动过程很是迅速。

The Note 7 was launched in August and 2.5mwere recalled to be exchanged for new ones two weeks later.

三星Note 7于今年8月发布，两周后就有250万部手机被召回以更换新机。

This week it abandoned the devicealtogether.

本周，三星彻底放弃了这款手机。

If you were not paying attention, you mighthave missed it entirely.

如果你没有在关注的话，你可能就完全错过了这整个过程。

That is typical Samsung.

这在三星身上很典型。

Since 1993, when Lee Kun-hee, its chairman,declared the new management initiative that transformed it from a consumerelectronics also-ran to a world-beater, it has marched very rapidly in thedirection set by its leaders.

自1993年三星会长李健熙(Lee Kun-hee)宣布新管理计划，将该公司从一家无足轻重的消费电子产品企业转变为全球佼佼者以来，该公司一直沿着其领导者确定的方向快速前行。

Samsung Electronics has notmatched Apple in innovation but has remained closely in step.

三星电子(Samsung Electronics)在创新方面比不上苹果(Apple)，但一直紧跟它的步调。

Every product recall is painful but Samsungcontrived to turn this one into a fiasco.

所有的产品召回都是痛苦的，但三星却把这次召回搞成了惨败。

To be clear, the Note 7 with the newbattery is safe.

三星美国公司总裁蒂姆•巴克斯特(Tim Baxter)曾在上月致客户的一则视频中信誓旦旦地说：请知悉，配备新电池的Note 7是安全的。

The battery cell issue is resolved, TimBaxter, the company’s US president, pledged in a video to customers last month.

电池问题已解决。把这番话说给西南航空(SouthwestAirlines)听吧，

Tell that to Southwest Airlines, which lastweek evacuated a jet on the runway when a Note 7 filled the cabin with smoke.

上月该航空公司因一部Note 7在机舱中冒烟而疏散了飞机上的乘客，当时飞机正停在跑道上。

The worst reputational damage occurs when acompany reveals the dark side of its competitive advantage.

如果一家公司暴露了其竞争优势的阴暗面的话，就会导致最严重的声誉损害。

That applies to the cross-selling scandalat Wells Fargo, the US retail bank, and is also true of the Note 7 affair.

这适用于美国零售银行富国银行(Wells Fargo)的交叉销售丑闻，也适用于此次Note 7事件。

By rushing to replace the battery withoutpausing long enough to identify the real problem, Samsung has damaged its imageas well as suffering the $2.3bn cost of scrapping the devices.

三星在没有花费足够长的时间确定真正问题的情况下匆忙替换电池，这种做法破坏了其形象，它还因手机报废蒙受了23亿美元的损失。

Samsung has done something remarkable inthe past decade, as Apple has taken most of the global profits from smartphoneswith the iPhone, and competitors such as Nokia and BlackBerry have fallen bythe wayside.

三星在过去十年取得的成就是令人赞叹的，在此期间，苹果凭借iPhone斩获了全球智能手机市场大部分利润，同时诺基亚(Nokia)和黑莓(BlackBerry)等竞争对手都已中途出局。

It has not only sold more mobile devicesthan any other company but, unusually for a manufacturer of Android phones,maintained strong profit margins.

三星不仅取得了超过任何其他公司的手机销量，而且还保持了强劲的利润率（这对于一家安卓(Android)手机制造商而言是不同寻常的）。

Given that its Galaxy phones run on largelythe same operating software as those of rivals, including Chinese companiessuch as Huawei and Lenovo , that is a big achievement.

考虑到三星Galaxy系列手机使用的操作系统与包括华为(Huawei)和联想(Lenovo)等中国公司的竞争对手基本相同，能取得这种成就很了不起。

Apple controls every aspect of the iPhone,from software to hardware, allowing it easily to stand out from the crowd.

苹果控制着iPhone的方方面面，从软件到硬件，令其很容易脱颖而出。

Samsung can dominate the Android marketonly by making alluring hardware.

三星只能通过生产有吸引力的硬件来主宰安卓手机市场。

The ability to do that owes much to Mr Lee’s reshapingof Samsung two decades ago (Lee Jae-yong, his son, is now taking control asvice-chairman).

三星之所以能做到这一点，在很大程度上归因于李健熙（他儿子李在镕(Lee Jae-yong)正在接手三星，目前担任副会长）20年前对三星的改革。

The culture that Mr Lee senior inculcated,with its emphasis on military-style discipline and rapid responses tocompetitive threats, has enabled it to match Apple’s productcycle more speedily and effectively than others.

李健熙反复主张一种强调军队式纪律和快速回应竞争威胁的文化，这种文化让三星得以比其他手机厂商更快且更高效地跟上苹果的产品周期。

It occasionally gains an edge over Apple’s hardware,as it did before the launch of the iPhone 6 in 2014, when it pioneered largerscreens on Galaxy phones.

三星在硬件方面有时会超过苹果，例如，在2014年苹果推出iPhone 6之前，三星就率先推出了大屏Galaxy手机。

The Note 7 also had some distinct features:a high-definition curved screen and an iris scanner that could identify itsowner’s eyes.

Note 7也有着一些独特的特色：高清曲面屏幕以及可识别手机主人眼睛的虹膜扫描装置。

Mostly, though, Samsung has been a fastfollower, reproducing the most alluring aspects of Apple’s devices inAndroid form, with its own tweaks and refinements.

然而，三星多数情况下是一个动作快速的跟风者，它通过自己的细微修改和改良，将苹果手机最吸引人的特性复制到安卓手机上。

These tactics led to a California juryawarding Apple $399m damages for patent infringement in a legal dispute thatreached the US Supreme Court on Tuesday.

这些做法导致一加州陪审团在一起法律诉讼中裁定，苹果因三星专利侵权应获3.99亿美元赔偿，此案周二已提交美国最高法院审理。

Its skill should not be underestimated.

三星的能力不应被低估。

Many companies, including Taiwan’s HTC,have tried to do the same thing with less success.

包括台湾宏达电(HTC)在内的很多公司一直试图做跟三星相同的事情，但不如三星成功。

As Mr Lee declared in 1993: An age iscoming where the number one can fall to the bottom and the bottom become numberone.

正如李健熙在1993年宣布的那样：第一名可能变成最后一名、最后一名也可能变成第一名的时代正在到来。

Samsung has combined research anddevelopment, design and marketing more powerfully than others.

与其他手机厂商相比，三星更有力地将研究与开发、设计与营销结合在了一起。

But it grows ever harder to stay in thelead and to maintain the 23 per cent share of the global smartphone market thatprovides economies of scale.

但要保持领先地位和23%的全球智能手机市场份额（这一份额带来规模经济效应）变得越来越困难。

At the top end, it faces Apple and Google,which has launched the Pixel phone to gain thorough control of an Androiddevice.

在市场顶端，三星面对着苹果和谷歌(Google)，谷歌已推出Pixel手机，以取得对一台安卓设备的完全控制权。

At the bottom, it confronts Chineseupstarts that have studied its strategy and want to replicate it.

在市场低端，三星面对着中国的后起之秀，它们一直研究三星的战略并希望加以复制。

This leaves little room for manoeuvre, asthe Note 7 shows.

正如三星Note 7所显示的那样，这没有给三星留下多少回旋的余地。

Samsung has often set itself the challengeof cramming sophisticated components into a new device in time to beat thelaunch of the latest iPhone.

三星经常给自己设下这样的挑战：抢在最新款iPhone发布之前，及时推出采纳了各种先进组件的新款手机。

This time, it failed.

这一次，它失败了。

The problem with the Note 7 wasover-ambition, says Sea-jin Chang, a professor at National University ofSingapore who has studied the company.

新加坡国立大学(National University of Singapore)教授、一直研究三星的张世真(ChangSea-jin)表示：Note 7的问题在于野心过大。

Faced with trouble, it should taken thetime to analyse the mistake thoroughly, but that went against its instinct notto let anything spoil its plans.

面对问题，三星应该做的是花费时间彻底分析这个错误，但这违背了它不让任何事情破坏自己计划的本能。

It found a quick fix and deployed it withcharacteristic speed and efficiency, only to discover that it was wrong.

它找到了快速解决方案，并用其典型的速度和效率付诸实施，只不过到头来发现这方案是错的。

The last time Samsung faced such anexistential challenge, Mr Lee senior summoned executives to a Frankfurt hoteland lectured them for three days on how it had to remake itself.

三星上次面临这种攸关生死存亡的挑战时，李健熙曾召集高管到法兰克福的一家酒店，就三星该如何改变自己训话3天。

Change everything but your wife andchildren, he instructed them, in remarks handed down like scripture within thecompany.

除了你们的老婆孩子，其他一切都要变。他指示他们，这番言论像圣经一样在公司内部一级级传达下去。

It is probably time for his son to callanother meeting.

现在他儿子很可能要再召集一次会议了。