苹果坠落
For a few years after Jobs was ousted,
在乔布斯出局后的几年,
Apple was able to coast comfortably with a high profit margin based on its temporary dominance in desktop publishing.
苹果公司由于暂时统领桌面排版系统,还可以舒服地享受很髙的利润率。
Feeling like a genius back in 1987, John Sculley had made a series of proclamations that nowadays sound embarrassing.
当时自我感觉有如天才的约翰·斯卡利,于1987年发表了一系列今天看起来颇为尷尬的宣言。
Jobs wanted Apple "to become a wonderful consumer products company," Sculley wrote.
乔布斯希望苹果“成为一家出色的消费品公司”,斯卡利写道,
"This was a lunatic plan. Apple would never be a consumer products company.
“这是个愚蠢的计划。苹果永远不会是一家消费品公司。
We couldn't bend reality to all our dreams of changing the world.
我们不能因为我们改变世界的梦想就扭曲现实。
High tech could not be designed and sold as a consumer product."
高科技不能作为消费品去设计和销售。”
Jobs was appalled, and he became angry and contemptuous as Sculley presided over a steady decline in market share for Apple in the early 1990s.
乔布斯格外震惊,20世纪90年代初,苹果在斯卡利的领导下市场份额和收入持续下降,他对斯卡利的愤怒和蔑视也与日俱增。
"Sculley destroyed Apple by bringing in corrupt people and corrupt values," Jobs later lamented.
“斯卡利引进下三滥的人和下三滥的价值观,把苹果给毁了。”乔布斯后来悲叹,
"They cared about making money—for themselves mainly, and also for Apple—rather than making great products."
“他们只在乎如何赚钱--主要为他们自己,同时也为苹果--而不在乎如何制造出色的产品。”
He felt that Sculley's drive for profits came at the expense of gaining market share.
乔布斯感觉斯卡利对利润的追逐是以牺性市场份额为代价的。
"Macintosh lost to Microsoft because Sculley insisted on milking all the profits he could get rather than improving the product and making it affordable."
“麦金塔之所以输给微软,是因为斯卡利坚持榨取每一分利润,而不是努力改进产品和降低价格。”
As a result, the profits eventually disappeared.
结果就是,这些利润最终消失了。
It had taken Microsoft a few years to replicate Macintosh's graphical user interface,
微软用了几年时间模仿麦金塔的图形用户界面,
but by 1990 it had come out with Windows 3.0, which began the company's march to dominance in the desktop market.
到1990年就已经推出了Windows 3.0系统,从此走上了统领台式电脑市场的征途。