《時代》揭秘中國人的蘋果狂熱癥
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????漢娜?畢什在本周的《時代》周刊（Time Magazine）中寫道：“蘋果公司（Apple）代表了最優(yōu)秀的美國大公司。它以創(chuàng)新為使命，具有獨特的時尚品味和敏銳的宣傳視角。” ????此外，蘋果的成功還有一個很重要的原因，那就是它與遠隔重洋的中國之間有著深刻、復(fù)雜的聯(lián)系。蘋果公司的所有配件幾乎都在中國組裝。最近幾個月，關(guān)于蘋果公司中國供應(yīng)鏈侵犯勞動者權(quán)益的報告頻頻見諸報端。蘋果公司自身沒有工廠，而是將產(chǎn)品組裝任務(wù)外包，形成了一個巨大的供應(yīng)商網(wǎng)絡(luò)。 ????不過，供應(yīng)方面的問題只是蘋果公司中國故事的一小部分。其他許多在華的西方科技企業(yè)都受困于當?shù)仄髽I(yè)的競爭以及中國政府部門的種種通信限制，日子并不好過，但蘋果卻一派欣欣向榮的氣象。但作為一家美國公司，在目前中產(chǎn)階級規(guī)模迅速擴大的中國，蘋果品牌已經(jīng)成為這個國度追求進步的終極精神圖騰。 ????蘋果與中國大陸的關(guān)系體現(xiàn)了全球經(jīng)濟最偉大的機會，但也代表了最棘手的難題。一家美國科技巨頭必須決定在多大程度上來調(diào)整自己、適應(yīng)這個遙遠的國度。蘋果是否應(yīng)該成為西方在“中央王國”最優(yōu)秀的代表，或者蘋果是否必須遵照中國公司不太體面的運營方式？而從中國方面來說，隨著政府民族主義傾向日益嚴重，眼睜睜看著蘋果這樣的外國公司在自己的國土上大肆撈錢，它還能容忍多久？而夾在中間左右為難的將是13億中國老百姓，他們在工廠的辛勤工作和對奢侈品的品味將左右全球市場的未來。 ????《時代》周刊駐北京辦事處負責人畢什條理清晰地講述了一個復(fù)雜的故事。蘋果投資者對其中大部分內(nèi)容都已經(jīng)熟知，不過她在其中添加了一部分在成都當?shù)氐膱蟮溃约拔覀儚奈唇佑|過的部分細節(jié)——例如，蘋果標志不僅出現(xiàn)在山寨蘋果商店和假冒iPhone手機上（包括尚未推出的iPhone5），甚至還有約700個打著蘋果品牌的燃氣灶都貼上了蘋果標志。 ????譯者：劉進龍/汪皓 |
????"Apple symbolizes the best of American Big Business," writes Hannah Beech in this week's issue of Time Magazine, "its innovative drive, its stylish flair, its advertising acumen." ????The company has also succeeded because of its deep and complex relationship with a country halfway around the world, where nearly all its gadgets are assembled. Labor violations within the tech firm's China supply chain--Apple has no factories of its own and instead contracts assembly out to a vast supplier network--have grabbed headlines in recent months. ????But the supply-side problems are only part of the Apple story. The American company is thriving in China, even as other Western tech firms struggle with local competition and communications restrictions imposed by the authoritarian state. Apple products now serve as the ultimate totem of upward mobility in a country with a fast-growing middle class... ????Apple's relationship with the People's Republic embodies some of the global economy's brightest opportunities but also its thorniest dilemmas. An American tech giant must decide how much to adapt its practices in a faraway land. Should Apple represent the best of the West in the Middle Kingdom, or must it conform to the less salubrious way China Inc. operates? From China's side, how much longer will an increasingly nationalistic government allow foreign companies like Apple to profit so handsomely on its shores? Caught in the middle are 1.3 billion Chinese whose toil in factories and taste for luxury products will dictate the future of the world's marketplace. ????Beech, Time's Beijing bureau chief, does a nice job weaving together the strands of a complex story, much of which will be familiar to Apple (AAPL) investors but to which she adds some on-the-ground-in-Chengdu reporting and a few details we hadn't seen before -- such as the fact that Apple logos have begun to appear not just on fake Apple stores and fake iPhones (including an iPhone 5 that don't yet exist), but also on nearly 700 Apple-branded gas stoves. ????It's the cover story on Time's International editions, available free for subscribers here and for purchase in Apple's iBookstore under a new arrangement between Time Inc. (TWC) and Apple two years in the making. Seehere. ????It's also available in the domestic edition -- but inside the magazine, where it runs behind a cover story about the history of the American Dream written, ironically, by the former editor of Newsweek. |
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