有声英语故事连载：《名人传记》之乔布斯 第80期

故事连载

 

For the first time it was actually, you know, intuitive.

计算机的操作头一次变得直观

If you were bright enough to walk around unaided,

只要你生活能够自理

you could just turn it on and use it.

你就能按下开关开始用它

The Macintosh would be a hit with graphic designers

苹果机倍受平面设计者青睐

and create the desktop publishing era.

它也创造了桌面出版时代

Those of us who used Apples, who got up early

我们使用苹果机的人 每天都会早起

because we were excited about the fact

因为我们对生活充满了期待

we were in a world full of glide and flow and smoothness and pleasure,

我们的世界里 一切都是行云流水 美好细腻的

 

were told that we were pretentious, posing, bohemian arty types.

别人却觉得 我们是自视甚高 装腔作势又放荡不羁的艺术家

“It’s all very well for you, but I’ve got to do officey things”,

"对我们嗤之以鼻 觉得我们并不脚踏实地地工作"

were missing the point.

但他们并没理解到重点

But however good it was, the Mac cost $2,500,

不过 无论它有多好 苹果机的售价是2500美元

over $1,000 more than an IBM PC.

这比IBM的个人电脑贵1000美元

Even so, Steve Jobs was in no doubt it would take the world by storm.

即使如此 乔布斯仍坚信它将会创造出销售神话

Like all great entrepreneurs, in Steve’s mind,

像所有伟大的企业家一样

“Why wouldn’t everybody on the planet immediately buy a Mac”?

史蒂夫眼中的Mac是完美的 他觉得每个人都应该立马买上一台

So he had huge expectations.

他满怀期望

Expectations that were about to collide with the real world.

但期望与现实总会产生落差

Then the sales numbers started coming in

销售数量统计显示

and, at best, they were half of what we were expecting.

他们至多卖出了期望销量的一半

 

One of Steve’s great strengths is his strong will

史蒂夫最大的优点就是他坚强的意志

and imposing his own version of reality.

以及我行我素的固执

So in the face of depressing sales numbers he wasn’t really fazed.

因此当他面对着差强人意的销量时 他并未消沉

Apple’s new Macintosh factory was running at 50% of capacity.

苹果新建的Macintosh工厂只发挥了一半的作用

We did lose money and that was a huge crisis for everybody.

我们损失了不少钱 这对每个人来说都是一场巨大的灾难

Of course, that engendered a panic at Apple.

当然 这在苹果引起了恐慌

You know, “What was the problem? How can we fix it?”

"问题出在了哪里?我们该如何解决它?"

And there, there was disagreement between different people.

当时 不同的人对这件事有着不同的看法