精品文档When Steve Jobs walked on to the stage at San Fran cisco ' s Yerba Bue na Cen ter in Janu ary, it capped the most remarkable comeback in moder n bus in ess history.ua It wasn ' t si mply a matter of the illness that had sidelined him for half the year before, leav ing him severely emaciated and eventually requiringa livertran spla nt. Little more tha n a decade earlier, both Mr Jobs ' career and Apple, the company he had co-founded, were widely con sidered washed up, their releva nee toI the future of tech no logy writte n off both in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street.By the start of this year, however, therebo und was complete. The level of an ticipation whipped up in adva nee of the January event was unu sual even by Mr Jobs own, impressive sta ndards.Critics often talk disparagingly of the"reality distortio n field ”gen erated by the Apple boss: his ability to convince onio okers that tech no logies that would seem un formed in other hands have reached a peak of perfect ion at Apple. Generating this suspension of disbelief is esse ntial to stirri ng up dema nd for gadgets most con sumers had no idea they needed, and is an art form of which Mr Jobs has long bee n the ack no wledged master.Speculati on had bee n build ing in the tech world for mon ths about what was rumoured to be Apple ' s latest gro un d-break ing product. A touch-scree n computer without a keyboard, it might even rival the impact of the iPod, in troduced in 2001, and the iPho ne, in 2007. In the event, the iPad that Mr Jobs carried on to the stage with him that day did not disappo int.A rebuttal of F. Scott Fitzgerald今年1月,史蒂夫?乔布斯(Steve Jobs) 走上旧金山芳草地艺术中心(Yerba Bue na Center)的舞台发布iPad,完成了现代商业史上最引人注目的一次复出。
这不仅仅关乎半年前迫使他退居幕后的疾病。
病魔一度令乔布斯严重消瘦,最终不得不进行肝脏移植手术。
而就在十多年前,几乎所有人认为乔布斯的事业及其共同创立的苹果公司(Apple)已经走上绝路。
硅谷和华尔街都断定,它们已经与科技的未来无缘。
然而,到了今年初,苹果已然重生。
在1 月份的发布会之前,即使是按照乔布斯自己的苛刻标准衡量,外界对苹果的期望程度也是异乎寻常的。
批评者总是用贬抑的口吻谈论乔布斯创造的“现实扭曲场”:他能让观众信服,那些在其他厂商手中似乎尚未成形的技术已经被苹果完美地应用。
为了激起消费者购买他们自己也不知道是否真正需要的电子产品的欲望,打消他们的疑虑极其关键,而乔布斯则早就被公认为这种艺术形式的大师。
在iPad发布之前的数月内,科技界对苹果这款最新的突破性产品猜测纷纷。
据传它是没有键盘的触摸屏电脑,甚至可以媲美2001年的iPod和2007年的iPhone带来的影响。
在1月份的发布会上,乔布斯带上台的iPad没有让人们失望。
对于F?斯科特?菲茨杰拉德(F. Scott精品文档much-quoted aphorism that there are no second acts in American life does not come more decisively tha n this. When Steve n Paul Jobs first hit the headlines, he was youn ger even tha n Mark Zuckerberg is now.Long before it was cool to be a n erd, his formative role in popularising the personal computer, and Apple ' s initial public offering on Wall Street - whichcame when Mr Jobs was still only 25 - made him the tech industry ' s first rock star.Now, three decades on, he has secured his place in the foremost ranks of the West Coast tech titans who have done so much to shape the world around the tur n of the mille nnium. Lon g-time n emesis Bill Gates may be richer and, at his peak, arguably exerted greater sway, tha nks to his mono poly over the world ' s PC software. But the Microsoft co-fo un der has left the stage to devote his life and fortune to good works. It is Mr Jobs who now holds the spotlight.Of all the fin gers that Apple has poked into Microsoft ' s eyes over the years, none can have rankled as much as the early success of the iPad. Mr Gates himself champi oned a tablet computer n early a decade ago, though the stylus n eeded to write on its scree n and the PC-like in terface gen erated little dema nd.The iPad is already turning out to bea different story. Extending the iPhone' s innovations of a more versatile screen and lightweight “apps” designed for specific tasks, it points to a future bey ond the computer mouse - and a world without Windows. Sales of cheaper notebook computers are already sufferi ng.It is not a visi on that is uni versally welcomed among the digerati. By decidi ng which apps are available in its on li neFitzgerald)广为流传的名言(美国人的生命中没有第二幕)而言,没有比这更坚决的反驳了。
乔布斯首次登上报纸头条时,甚至比现在的马克?扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)还要年轻。
早在书呆子备受追捧之前,由于在普及个人电脑(PC)中发挥的关键作用,以及苹果在华尔街的成功上市(当时乔布斯年仅25岁),乔布斯就成为了科技界的第一个摇滚明星。
如今,三十年过去了,乔布斯成为了在塑造世纪之交的世界中居功至伟的美国西海岸的几大科技巨头之一。
他的老对手比尔?盖茨(Bill Gates)或许更富有,而且在盖茨的事业巅峰时期,凭借其在PC软件领域的垄断,可以说盖茨的影响力比乔布斯更大。
但盖茨已经离开了舞台,将其余生和财富奉献给慈善事业。
如今,乔布斯才是焦点所在。
这些年来,在苹果针对微软的所有打击中,没有一次比得过iPad的巨大成功造成的冲击。
近十年前,盖茨自己也开发过一款平板电脑,但由于需要用笔在屏幕上写字,并且采用与PC一样的界面,该产品并未带动多少需求。
IiPad则完全不同。
iPad延续了iPhone 在屏幕多用途以及用于具体任务的轻量级“应用程序”方面的创新,代表着一个没有计算机鼠标和没有Windows的未来。
廉价上网本的销售已经受到了冲击。
不是所有数字专家都欢迎这样的未来。