The next tech battleground may be your wrist
你的手腕可能成为未来高科技的战场
Jan 26th 2013 | SAN FRANCISCO |From the print edition
HUMANS are “so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea,” says “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, a comic novel. Pebble, a maker of smartwatches, begs to differ. On January 23rd it started shipping digital devices that strap to your wrist but are nonetheless rather neat.
在漫画小说《银河系漫游指南》中，是这样描述人类的，“他们原始得令人吃惊，居然还认为数字手表是一项非常了不起的发明”。然而，智能腕表制造商Pebble对这个观点并不苟同。1月23日，该公司正式发售其美观精巧的、可以戴在手腕上的数字设备。
The thousands of people who contributed over $10m in pre-orders last year to finance Pebble do not think themselves primitive. For their cash, they will be the first to receive $150 slim devices that can show e-mail, text and Facebook messages received by the nearby smartphones to which they are wirelessly connected. The messages appear on an elegant LCD screen. The watches can run useful—nay, lifesaving—apps, such as a rangefinder for golfers. They can be programmed to vibrate when phone calls come in. They even tell the time.
去年，总共有数万人花费1千多万美元（为Pebble提供了资金上的支持）预购此款智能腕表，这些人并不认为自己很原始。作为回报，他们将率先获得价值150美元的精致腕表，此款腕表能与邻近的智能手机建立无线连接，并将手机接收到的电子邮件、文本及Facebook消息展现在精美的液晶屏幕上。此款腕表可以运行各种实用的（甚至是用于救生的）应用程序，比如为高尔夫球手准备的测距仪。你可以给手表编程，以便在电话呼入时发出震动，甚至它还能播报时间。
Pebble isn’t the only company springing into the watch business. Other start-ups such as ConnecteDevice, which produces the Cookoo watch, and I’m Watch, an Italian firm, are also touting connected timepieces. Japan’s Sony is promoting its SmartWatch, which works with Android phones. And there are rumours that both Apple and Google have smartwatch prototypes under development. Last year Google filed a patent for a watch with what looked like a small, flip-up display screen.
Pebble可不是唯一一家突发其想做起手表生意的公司。还有其他一些正在宣传此类计时器的新兴企业，比如生产Cookoo手表的ConnecteDevice，以及一家名为I’m Watch的意大利公司。日本的索尼公司正在促销其适用安卓手机的智能腕表SmartWatch。并有传言说，苹果和谷歌都已处在智能腕表的样品测试阶段。去年，谷歌为一款带有小型翻盖显示屏的手表申请了专利。
Smartwatch start-ups have borrowed ideas from smartphone-makers. They have packed their watches with tiny sensors that can be exploited by various apps. They use software to prolong battery life. (Pebble’s watch can go seven days without a charge.) And they have encouraged other developers to create apps for their timepieces.
智能腕表的初创企业借鉴了智能手机制造商的设计理念，他们为手表配备了大量面向各种应用程序的微型传感器，还利用软件延长电池寿命（Pebble腕表可以续肮七天）。同时，他们还鼓励其他开发者为计时器创建各种应用程序。
Massimiliano Bertolini, a co-inventor of I’m Watch, admits it will take time for people to get used to recharging their watches, but he says they will soon find it worthwhile. He knows he must watch out in case a tech giant such as Apple invades his turf. Were that to happen, he says, it would prove that smartwatches really are a business of the future. Only time will tell.
I’m Watch的设计者之一Massimiliano Bertolini承认，让人们习惯为手表充电需要花一段时间。但他也表示，人们很快就会发现这样是值得的。他清楚，必须要时刻提防苹果这样的科技巨头侵入这一市场。他还说，如果这种情况发生，也就证明智能腕表真的是一项未来的商业。只有时间能证明。
From the print edition: Business 译者：许勐
本文原文出自《经济学人》杂志
