With Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, Samsung Tries to Regain Its Footing
三星新手機改頭換面,，能否挽回市場份額

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)最新的旗艦智能手機Galaxy S6和S6 Edge的內部代號是“零號項目”(Project Zero)，和公司所說的“回歸基本面”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.

這個代號也表明,，三星似乎終于理解了自家手機長期以來遭受的諸多批評：塑料材質的硬件看上去很廉價，宣傳力度最大的功能用處卻很小,，軟件方面也太復雜,。

Samsung, according to Samsung, has realized the errors of it ways.

三星表示，自己已經(jīng)認識到了這些錯誤,。

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.

這樣的認識是迫不得已的。過去一年,，三星在智能手機市場上的份額和利潤雙雙大幅下降,。這家總部設在韓國的公司慘遭兩面夾擊：低端市場上有小米等中國后起之秀的經(jīng)濟型手機，高端市場上又有表現(xiàn)強勁的蘋果公司(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.

從上周起,，這兩款雅致的新Galaxy手機開始在美國發(fā)售。三星試圖依靠它們擺脫這種困境,。不過,，這些手機雖然看上去華麗迷人，但很可能還是不足以幫公司解憂紓困,。

Despite improved hardware, the S6 and S6 Edge still lack compelling software.

盡管在硬件上有所改善,，S6和S6 Edge的軟件依然缺乏亮點。

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.

與蘋果不同,，三星從未成功推出過足以留住用戶的內置軟件套件和服務,。這是三星手機的一個明顯缺陷,，目前卻幾乎沒有看到顯而易見的方式來加以應對。

“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.”

“可以說他們處在解決軟件問題的第一階段,，也就是剝離大量垃圾的階段,，”科技領域的獨立分析師簡·道森(Jan Dawson)說。他曾預計到三星近期遭遇的麻煩,?！暗覀儾]有見到第二個階段，那是指推出自己的東西,。迄今為止,，我們在這方面還沒有看到什么建樹?！?/p>

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.

一個迫切的問題是,，三星可以用哪些方法來讓自家手機脫穎而出。依靠推出價格具有吸引力的可以替代iPhone的手機,，以及在營銷上撒的錢超過任何一個競爭對手,，三星成為了世界上銷量最大的智能手機生產(chǎn)商。它先于其他公司推出了大屏手機,，出人意料地受到了消費者的熱捧,。

But last year, Apple produced its own big phones. They were also a hit, and Samsung’s spiral accelerated.

但在去年，蘋果同樣推出了自己的大屏手機,，也受到了熱捧,，三星的下滑勢態(tài)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.

假日購物季的銷售數(shù)據(jù)尤為殘酷,。調研公司高德納(Gartner)的資料顯示,，在2014年的最后一個季度，在整體市場出現(xiàn)增長的情況下,，三星智能手機的銷量比前一年有所下降,。有人估計，在假日購物季,，智能手機行業(yè)90%以上的利潤都流入了蘋果公司,。

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機生產(chǎn)商，但高德納通報的數(shù)據(jù)顯示,，在2013年和2014年間,，其市場份額已從31%左右下降到不足25%。人們普遍認為中國是一個巨大的增長市場,。市場調研公司IDC的資料顯示,，上個季度，三星在中國市場上位居第五,，排在小米,、蘋果,、華為和聯(lián)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.

有些人批評三星的設備看上去很廉價,，而新的S6和S6 Edge至少在這方面做出了改進,。這兩個款型幾乎外表相同，只是Edge的屏幕左右兩邊呈曲面設計,，相當吸引眼球,，雖然基本上沒有什么實際用途。

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.

這兩款S6系列的手機放棄了三星老款手機的塑料材質,，代之以鋁和玻璃,。無論是S6和S6 Edge，外表都和蘋果的iPhone如出一轍,。尤其是S6,，看起來就像是iPhone的同宗兄弟。三星還采納了蘋果長期以來備受三星愛好者批評的一些設計思路,。比如新款Galaxy配備的電池不再可以拆卸,，也不再提供的額外存儲卡插槽；兩款S6均無Galaxy S5那樣的防水功能,。

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.

三星還在努力提升其他每項硬件的品質：S6和S6 Edge運行速度飛快,，攝像頭上佳，指紋感應十分靈敏,，而且——配上充電板——還可以無線充電,。

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.

不過，即使這兩款手機外表美觀,、功能強大,，使用它們還是有些痛苦。S6和S6 Edge運行的是經(jīng)過修改的谷歌Android操作系統(tǒng),。盡管三星的工程師在努力簡化軟件系統(tǒng),，手機的界面還是雜糅了古怪的設計和過于復雜的功能。

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.

在國際手機市場上,，三星Galaxy的價格并不便宜。它們的售價和蘋果的最新款設備差不多,，兩年的合約機至少199美元（約合1230元人民幣）,，非合約機則是650美元起步。不過,，中國的廉價手機生產(chǎn)商也推出了功能強大的產(chǎn)品,，比如一加手機。它們的價格通常還不到高端的三星和蘋果設備的一半,。

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.

不過,，由于三星長期存在軟件上的不足,，消費者并不會對其產(chǎn)品趨之若鶩。此外,，由于三星手機搭載的是谷歌的操作系統(tǒng),，消費者還不如直接購買谷歌的服務。后者通常有更好的設計,，在多數(shù)其他Android手機上都能使用,。