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With Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, Samsung Tries to Regain Its Footing Samsung’s internal code name for its latest top-of-the-line smartphones, the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, is “Project Zero,” signaling what Samsung calls “a return to fundamentals.” 三星(Samsung)最新的旗舰智能手机Galaxy S6和S6 Edge的内部代号是“零号项目”(Project Zero)，和公司所说的“回归基本面”相契合。 The code name also suggests that Samsung finally seems to understand the many criticisms that have long been leveled at its phones: the plastic hardware looked cheap, the most promoted features were mostly useless and the software was too complicated. 这个代号也表明，三星似乎终于理解了自家手机长期以来遭受的诸多批评：塑料材质的硬件看上去很廉价，宣传力度最大的功能用处却很小，软件方面也太复杂。 Samsung, according to Samsung, has realized the errors of it ways. 三星表示，自己已经认识到了这些错误。 The realization was born out of necessity. Samsung’s market share and profits in the smartphone business have plummeted over the last year. The company, which is based in South Korea, is in the unenviable position of getting squeezed from the bottom by the affordable phones made by Chinese upstarts like Xiaomi and at the top by Apple’s powerhouse line of iPhones. 这样的认识是迫不得已的。过去一年，三星在智能手机市场上的份额和利润双双大幅下降。这家总部设在韩国的公司惨遭两面夹击：低端市场上有小米等中国后起之秀的经济型手机，高端市场上又有表现强劲的苹果公司(Apple)的iPhone系列。 The elegant new Galaxy phones, which went on sale in the United States last week, are aiming to pull Samsung out of that pickle. But while the phones are magnificent to look at, they are most likely not quite enough to fix what ails the company. 从上周起，这两款雅致的新Galaxy手机开始在美国发售。三星试图依靠它们摆脱这种困境。不过，这些手机虽然看上去华丽迷人，但很可能还是不足以帮公司解忧纾困。 Despite improved hardware, the S6 and S6 Edge still lack compelling software. 尽管在硬件上有所改善，S6和S6 Edge的软件依然缺乏亮点。 Unlike Apple, Samsung has never managed to create a built-in suite of software and services to keep people hooked to its own phones. And there are few obvious ways for Samsung to address this glaring flaw. 与苹果不同，三星从未成功推出过足以留住用户的内置软件套件和服务。这是三星手机的一个明显缺陷，目前却几乎没有看到显而易见的方式来加以应对。 “You can argue that they’re in phase one of fixing their software, which is getting rid of a lot of the junk,” said Jan Dawson, an independent technology analyst who anticipated Samsung’s recent troubles. “But we haven’t really seen phase two, which would be building its own stuff. We haven’t really seen much of that so far.” “可以说他们处在解决软件问题的第一阶段，也就是剥离大量垃圾的阶段，”科技领域的独立分析师简·道森(Jan Dawson)说。他曾预计到三星近期遭遇的麻烦。“但我们并没有见到第二个阶段，那是指推出自己的东西。迄今为止，我们在这方面还没有看到什么建树。” The question of what Samsung can do to differentiate its phones is urgent. Samsung became the most popular smartphone maker in the world by producing alternatives to the iPhone at attractive prices, and by outspending all of its rivals on marketing. More than any other company, Samsung developed phones with big screens, a surprising hit with consumers. 一个迫切的问题是，三星可以用哪些方法来让自家手机脱颖而出。依靠推出价格具有吸引力的可以替代iPhone的手机，以及在营销上撒的钱超过任何一个竞争对手，三星成为了世界上销量最大的智能手机生产商。它先于其他公司推出了大屏手机，出人意料地受到了消费者的热捧。 But last year, Apple produced its own big phones. They were also a hit, and Samsung’s spiral accelerated. 但在去年，苹果同样推出了自己的大屏手机，也受到了热捧，三星的下滑势态于是加速了。 The holidays were particularly brutal. Samsung’s smartphone sales in the last quarter of 2014 declined from the year before, while the overall market grew, according to the research firm Gartner. By some estimates Apple claimed more than 90 percent of the profit in the smartphone industry during the holidays. 假日购物季的销售数据尤为残酷。调研公司高德纳(Gartner)的资料显示，在2014年的最后一个季度，在整体市场出现增长的情况下，三星智能手机的销量比前一年有所下降。有人估计，在假日购物季，智能手机行业90%以上的利润都流入了苹果公司。 Samsung is still the largest smartphone maker in the world, but its share fell from about 31 percent to less than 25 percent between 2013 and 2014, Gartner reported. And in China, widely considered the big growth market for phones, Samsung was ranked fifth behind Xiaomi, Apple, Huawei and Lenovo during the last quarter, according to the research firm IDC. 三星仍然是世界上最大的智能手机生产商，但高德纳通报的数据显示，在2013年和2014年间，其市场份额已从31%左右下降到不足25%。人们普遍认为中国是一个巨大的增长市场。市场调研公司IDC的资料显示，上个季度，三星在中国市场上位居第五，排在小米、苹果、华为和联想之后。 The new S6 and S6 Edge — which are nearly identical to one another except that the Edge’s screen curves intriguingly, though mostly uselessly, on its left and right side — are at least an answer to critics who say Samsung’s devices look cheap. 有些人批评三星的设备看上去很廉价，而新的S6和S6 Edge至少在这方面做出了改进。这两个款型几乎外表相同，只是Edge的屏幕左右两边呈曲面设计，相当吸引眼球，虽然基本上没有什么实际用途。 The S6 phones are made out of aluminum and glass rather than the plastic in Samsung’s older phones. Both the S6 and S6 Edge strongly resemble Apple’s iPhone. The S6 in particular looks like Apple’s brother from another mother. Samsung has also co-opted many of the design ideas for which its fans have long criticized Apple. The new Galaxys no longer offer a removable battery, for example, or a slot for add-on storage cards, and unlike the Galaxy S5, the S6es aren’t waterproof. 这两款S6系列的手机放弃了三星老款手机的塑料材质，代之以铝和玻璃。无论是S6和S6 Edge，外表都和苹果的iPhone如出一辙。尤其是S6，看起来就像是iPhone的同宗兄弟。三星还采纳了苹果长期以来备受三星爱好者批评的一些设计思路。比如新款Galaxy配备的电池不再可以拆卸，也不再提供的额外存储卡插槽；两款S6均无Galaxy S5那样的防水功能。 Samsung goes far in checking off every other hardware box: The S6 and S6 Edge are blazingly fast, their cameras are excellent, their fingerprint sensors work very well, and — with an add-on charging pad — they can be recharged wirelessly. 三星还在努力提升其他每项硬件的品质：S6和S6 Edge运行速度飞快，摄像头上佳，指纹感应十分灵敏，而且——配上充电板——还可以无线充电。 But if the new phones are beautiful and functional, they are still something of a pain to use. The S6 and S6 Edge run Samsung’s modified version of Google’s Android operating system. Despite Samsung’s engineers’ efforts to clean up the software, the phone’s interface is a hodgepodge of odd design decisions and overly complicated functions. 不过，即使这两款手机外表美观、功能强大，使用它们还是有些痛苦。S6和S6 Edge运行的是经过修改的谷歌Android操作系统。尽管三星的工程师在努力简化软件系统，手机的界面还是杂糅了古怪的设计和过于复杂的功能。 In the international market for phones, Samsung’s Galaxys are relatively expensive. They sell for about the same price as Apple’s latest devices, $199 and up with a two-year contract, or more than $650 without a contract. But powerful phones made by low-priced Chinese sellers, like the OnePlus One, often sell for less than half the price of high-end Samsung and Apple devices. 在国际手机市场上，三星Galaxy的价格并不便宜。它们的售价和苹果的最新款设备差不多，两年的合约机至少199美元（约合1230元人民币），非合约机则是650美元起步。不过，中国的廉价手机生产商也推出了功能强大的产品，比如一加手机。它们的价格通常还不到高端的三星和苹果设备的一半。 Still, Samsung’s long history of subpar software might not inspire droves of customers to buy into its world. What’s more, since Samsung’s phones are based on Google’s operating system, customers are better off buying into that company’s services because they’re usually better designed and will work on most other Android phones. 不过，由于三星长期存在软件上的不足，消费者并不会对其产品趋之若鹜。此外，由于三星手机搭载的是谷歌的操作系统，消费者还不如直接购买谷歌的服务。后者通常有更好的设计，在多数其他Android手机上都能使用。 |
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