黑莓要扭轉頹勢面臨艱鉅的挑戰
BlackBerry Ltd. has had a busy week — it debuted a new smartphone called the Passport and reported a narrower quarterly loss. But do those rosy headlines suggest a turnaround is underway?
黑莓公司（BlackBerry Ltd.）這一週十分忙碌——公司推出了一款名爲Passport的智能手機，季度財報顯示的虧損額度也有所減少。不過這些美好的新聞是否預示着黑莓即將迎來轉機呢？Not necessarily. The Canada-based company on Friday reported it recognized hardware revenue on about 2.1 million smartphones for the quarter ended Aug. 30, a tiny figure compared to the over 10 million smartphones Apple AAPL 2.94% sold over the weekend after the debut of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. BlackBerry’s quarterly revenue plunged 42% to $916 million from the year-ago level.
未必見得。這家位於加拿大的公司在上週五的報告中確認，在截至8月30日的季度中，公司共賣出了210萬部智能手機，這與蘋果（Apple）在iPhone 6和iPhone 6 Plus上市後第一個週末的1,000萬部銷量相比，只是個很小的數字。黑莓的季度收入爲9.16億美元，同比下降了42%。
And for those keeping score: back when Apple debuted its first iPhone in 2007, it took 74 days to ship its one millionth smartphone. BlackBerry managed to ship over 3 million devices in a quarter over roughly the same time period.
再看看那些過去的紀錄：在第一代iPhone誕生的2007年，蘋果花了74天才賣出100萬部手機，而就在大概同一時期，黑莓在一個季度中就賣出了300萬部產品。
Of course, this reversal of fortunes isn’t a surprise. BlackBerry’s worldwide smartphone market share is under 1%, according to data from research firm International Data Corporation, far less than Apple’s hold on about 12% of the market. BlackBerry’s market share was a far more sturdy 13.6% just three years ago, signifying just how quickly things can turn sour for a smartphone maker when it falls out of favor.
當然，這個時運大逆轉並不令人驚訝。根據國際數據公司（International Data Corporation）的數據，目前黑莓在全球智能手機市場的份額還不到1%，遠低於蘋果的約12%。而就在三年前，黑莓的市場份額爲13.6%，甚至強於今天的蘋果，由此可見智能手機制造商一旦失寵，形勢將惡化得多快。BlackBerry BBRY 4.69% is hoping to change all that with the launch of its 4.5-inch square-shaped Passport, touting the device’s larger screen and apps geared to professionals that have defected to other devices. As Fortune reported last month, BlackBerry is hoping government, finance and health care work.rs will find the device’s unorthodox dimensions ideal for their work.
黑莓正希望借4.5英寸方屏手機Passport的推出改變這一切。公司表示該產品的大屏幕和應用軟件十分適合那些已經轉用其他設備的專業人士。正如《財富》（Fortune）上個月所報道的，黑莓希望政府、金融和醫療界的人員能夠發現這款設備非同尋常的規格很適合他們的工作。The device is off to a fairly decent start, according to CNET, which reports 200,000 BlackBerry Passport smartphones have been ordered since launch.
根據科技資訊網站CNET的報道，Passport開局態勢良好，發佈至今已經有了20萬部的訂單。Investors have bought into the BlackBerry turnaround story before, only to be burned later when reality set in. The company’s shares rose in the months leading up to the company’s launch of a new operating system, called BlackBerry 10, which was unveiled in 2013. Investors had placed a big bet that plan could work, sending BlackBerry’s [then known as Research in Motion] shares up 59% in the 12 months before issuing quarterly results in June. Disappointing sales of the Z10 phone resulted in shares tumbling some 28%.
投資者之前曾相信黑莓能夠復甦並買入該公司的股票，將被證明是個錯誤的決定。黑莓在2013年發佈新款操作系統Blackberry 10之前的幾個月，公司股價一路攀升。投資者押下重注，認爲黑莓（那時候公司還叫Research in Motion）的計劃能夠成功，使得其股價在去年6月發佈季度財報前的12個月中上漲了59%。然而由於黑莓Z10手機的銷量不如人意，財報發佈後股價重挫了28%。
