智能手機靠噱頭還能走多遠
Imagine you make cars and come to work one day to discover that everyone in the world has a vehicle that does everything they need and no one wants to replace it.
想象一下你製造汽車，某天上班後發現全世界每個人都擁有一輛汽車，而那輛車可以做他們需要的一切事情，沒人想要換掉它。
This is not unlike the position smartphone makers are in today. Billions of people now carry a pocket computer with capabilities that exceed even science fiction’s predictions. And they’re mostly happy with their Star Trek-like devices.
這很像智能手機制造商當下的處境。如今，數十億人都隨身攜帶一臺運算能力甚至超出科幻小說預言的“便攜式計算機”。而且，他們基本上對這些《星際迷航》(Star Trek)一樣的設備感到滿意。
For phonemakers, then, it’s an “innovate or die” scenario. But the innovations that everyone in the world wants — vastly better battery life, a perfect signal everywhere and perhaps a teleportation app — may never be attainable.
因此，對於手機制造商而言，這將是一場“創新或死亡”的遊戲。但是，全世界人人都想要的創新——得到極大改善的電池續航力、無處不在的完美信號，甚至一款“瞬間轉移”應用——或許永遠無法實現。
So unless you’re Apple, which is starting to be perceived as a little bit boring, the way ahead in smartphones has to be solutions in pursuit of problems people didn’t know they had.
所以，除非你是已經開始被視爲有點乏味的蘋果(Apple)，否則智能手機的下一步發展必須是爲人們尚不知道存在的問題提供解決方案。
Last week’s most-publicised such solution was Huawei’s sleek P9, with its twin cameras and arresting co-branding with Germany’s elite Leica camera company. One can only hope for the Chinese manufacturer that the consuming masses have heard of Leica.
上週造勢得最沸沸揚揚的此類解決方案是華爲(Huawei)發佈的線條流暢的P9手機。該款手機配備了雙攝像頭，並以與德國頂級的徠卡(Leica)相機公司進行品牌合作爲賣點。人們只能期盼這家中國製造商的消費羣體聽說過徠卡。
But my 2016-so-far award for inventive problem finding has to go to LG, South Korea’s estimable, but second-ranking chaebol. Its new flagship phone — the G5 — launched in London a tactical day before the P9. And I found myself in equal measure impressed and amused by it.
但2016年迄今，在創造性地發現問題方面，我更看好的是韓國LG。雖然是一家受人尊敬的公司，但LG在韓國的大企業中只屈居第二梯隊。LG的戰術是，在華爲發佈P9前一天在倫敦推出了其新款旗艦手機G5。我發現這款手機既讓我印象深刻，也讓我覺得好玩。
Aside from its own twin cameras, LG’s effort has the overarching gimmick of being the first modular mobile phone. Press a button and half the device’s insides plop out, revealing space for extra gadgets to slot in, such as a Bang & Olufsen sound-enhancing music module and an attachment to convert the phone into a traditional camera.
除了其搭載的雙攝像頭，LG此番努力的最重要噱頭在於，G5是首款模塊化手機。按下按鈕，G5內部一半的模塊會彈出，爲插入附加設備——比如一款加強音效的Bang & Olufsen品牌音樂模組，或者一款將手機轉變爲傳統相機的配件——留出空間。
There is also a virtual reality headset — the best I’ve seen — and a slot-in projector is in the works. Then there’s the spherical robot, which under your control from the phone will roll around the house entertaining the cat and censoring what the kids are watching on TV (they still watch TV?).
G5還配有一款我見過的最好的虛擬現實頭罩，LG還在開發一款插入式投影儀。還有一款你可以用G5手機控制的球形機器人，讓它滿屋子轉來轉去地逗貓或者監督孩子們在看什麼電視節目（他們還看電視？）。
Now, leaving aside that I know there is at least one more modular phone due out this year (and another surprising camera co-branding on the horizon), the LG G5 is truly interesting and must have half a chance of taking off. It is crazily packed with features: no one could ever learn a quarter of its capabilities.
且不提我知道今年至少還有一款模塊化手機將會推出（以及另一款出人意料與相機進行品牌合作的手機），LG的G5真的很有意思，肯定有一半的勝算可以暢銷。這款手機集成的功能太多了：沒有人掌握得了四分之一的功能。
Does it, I asked at the launch, almost to be awkward, have the feature I first saw from Huawei that’s wildly popular in Asia, where software will “beautify” your face in a selfie — but not the faces of your friends? Of course it does.
在G5的發佈會上，我幾乎有些尷尬地問道，這款手機有沒有我在華爲手機上首次見到的、在亞洲廣受歡迎的自拍時爲自己“美顏”（但不給你的朋友美顏）的功能？當然有。
With deference to the fact that North Korea is a little different from South Korea, I find it hard not to call this, in a Korean phone, the Kim Jong Un mode.
雖然朝鮮和韓國有所不同，但我忍不住把這種功能稱爲“金正恩模式”。
LG’s modular idea will be hit or miss. The smallest gimmick can catch on in phones. Just the G5’s trick of sliding its innards out could become iconic in a small way. It combines the alarming nature of grandpa popping out his dentures with a sultry, gun-like menace.
LG的模塊化理念可能盛行，也可能曇花一現。手機上最小的噱頭也可能流行起來。僅是G5的內部模塊彈出功能就可能以小小的方式變得具有偶像性。它結合了祖父摘下假牙般的令人震驚與扳動槍機般迷人的冷酷形象。
What is cutest about LG’s venture is the challenge to its mighty rival, Samsung. LG leapfrogging Samsung’s phones is, in football terms, like a defender on my second-tier Nottingham Forest team nutmegging Lionel Messi.
LG此舉的最妙之處是挑戰其強大的對手三星(Samsung)。LG在手機上一下子超越三星，用足球打比喻，就像我最愛的乙級的諾丁漢森林隊(Nottingham Forest)的一名後衛把球從萊昂內爾•梅西(Lionel Messi)的兩腿之間傳過去。
LG, on the other hand, has got things (as it has before) a tiny bit wrong — charmingly, adorably wrong, but wrong nonetheless. The modules for the G5, for example, are officially called “friends”. And the part of LG where friends come from is “the LG playground”.
另一方面，同以前一樣，LG犯了一點點錯誤——錯得很可愛，但還是錯了。例如，G5的模塊被正式地稱爲“朋友”。而這些朋友來自“LG遊樂場”。
No, no and thrice no. This must be LG’s ditsyest linguistic error since 2009, when they announced a “borderless” TV — supposedly with a picture going right to the screen’s edge. Except that the picture had perfectly normal borders, which was quite bizarre.
不，不，還是不。這一定是LG自2009年以來最粗心的用詞不當，那年他們發佈了一款“無邊框”電視——按說應該是畫面直達屏幕邊緣。只是那款電視機有完全正常的邊框，這很古怪。
So where does it all lead? I had lunch last week with Carl Pei, the 26-year-old founder of OnePlus, the cult Chinese smartphone maker.
那麼，這一切將意味着什麼？上週，我與中國智能手機制造商一加(OnePlus) 26歲的聯合創始人裴宇(Carl Pei)共進了午餐。一加手機在特定的消費羣體中很受歡迎。
“What will your phones do in five or 10 years’ time?” I asked.
我問道：“5年或10年後，你們的手機能做什麼？”
“I’m not so sure,” Mr Pei said. “Smart watches have not succeeded, but I’m wondering now whether these technologies will be starting to be integrated into the [human] body.”
“我不太確定”，裴宇說，“智能手錶並未獲得成功，但我現在揣測這些技術會不會將開始融入人體。”
I can’t wait to see how that prediction looks in 2026.
我盼着要看看這一預測在2026年是否會變爲現實。
