For years, Apple customers would complain about the "Apple Tax" — the premium over similar products from other companies that you would have to pay for Apple's design and software. Apple stuff ispremium, and increasingly, it's sold as a luxury product as well — think of the $20,000 gold Apple Watch.
一直以來(lái)，熱衷于蘋(píng)果公司產(chǎn)品的消費(fèi)者們總為“蘋(píng)果稅”怨聲不迭——由于蘋(píng)果公司產(chǎn)品設(shè)計(jì)和軟件質(zhì)量的優(yōu)勢(shì)，你不得不付出比其他公司的類似產(chǎn)品更高的費(fèi)用。蘋(píng)果公司的產(chǎn)品物美價(jià)高，乃至逐漸成為了一種奢侈品——想想價(jià)值2萬(wàn)美元的蘋(píng)果金表!
But Apple's announcement on Tuesday, in which it revealed a new low-cost iPad and upgraded the least-expensive iPhone, shows that Apple has started to compete on price as well. The tech industry should take note.
然而，本周二蘋(píng)果公司舉行了一個(gè)發(fā)布會(huì)，發(fā)布了一款價(jià)格低廉的新款平板電腦,并對(duì)較為廉價(jià)的蘋(píng)果手機(jī)進(jìn)行了革新升級(jí)。這意味著蘋(píng)果公司加入了價(jià)格戰(zhàn)的領(lǐng)域。通信技術(shù)行業(yè)要多加注意了!
If Apple starts using its massive cash pile to undercut its competitors and deflate entire product categories, that's a big deal.
如果蘋(píng)果公司開(kāi)始投入大量資金，用價(jià)格優(yōu)勢(shì)削弱競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手，乃至讓各種電子產(chǎn)品經(jīng)受一次價(jià)格大縮水，這就非同小可了。
On Tuesday, Apple dropped the price of a fine, fast, and big iPad to $330 — a price below similar devices from Samsung, Lenovo, and Microsoft. Apple already dominated the high-end tablet market, and just undercut many of its Android competitors.
在周二的發(fā)布會(huì)上，蘋(píng)果公司宣布某款性能優(yōu)良，運(yùn)行迅速，尺寸大氣的平板電腦的售價(jià)下降到了330美元——這一售價(jià)比三星、聯(lián)想、微軟等品牌同類產(chǎn)品的售價(jià)都要低。蘋(píng)果已經(jīng)控制了高端平板電腦的銷售市場(chǎng)，也讓許多安卓系統(tǒng)的同類競(jìng)爭(zhēng)者遭遇了釜底抽薪。
Apple's iPhone SE got an upgrade, bumping its default storage up from 16GB to 32GB. It's not a full refresh, but it shows that Apple is still giving love and attention to even its cheapest iPhone.
SE型號(hào)的蘋(píng)果手機(jī)獲得了升級(jí)，屢受病詬的16G小內(nèi)存擴(kuò)展到了32G。這并非脫胎換骨，不過(guò)這也說(shuō)明，即使對(duì)自己最廉價(jià)的手機(jī)產(chǎn)品，蘋(píng)果公司仍會(huì)給予關(guān)愛(ài)和關(guān)注。
The low prices for these two updated device follow a trend that independent Apple analyst Neil Cybart noted last week: Apple "is making its products more accessible through lower pricing."
這兩種革新?lián)Q代的產(chǎn)品價(jià)格都非常低廉，印證了獨(dú)立分析師Neil Cybart在上周說(shuō)過(guò)的話：“蘋(píng)果‘真努力通過(guò)低廉的價(jià)格靠近更多的消費(fèi)者’�！�
But a company valued as richly as Apple also needs to keep its margins high, and that's why it's also turning into a luxury brand at the same time — note that Apple's iPad Pro debuted at $600, higher than the iPad Air 2 it nominally replaced.
不過(guò)像蘋(píng)果公司這樣身價(jià)高昂的公司也需要保持自己的價(jià)格優(yōu)勢(shì)，這就是為什么蘋(píng)果同時(shí)也正在轉(zhuǎn)型成為一個(gè)奢侈品品牌——注意，首次與眾人見(jiàn)面的蘋(píng)果平板電腦iPad Pro售價(jià)為600美元，比其在名義上取代了的 iPad Air 2價(jià)格還要昂貴。
