For years, Apple customers would complain about the "Apple Tax" — the premium over similar products from other companies that you would have to pay for Apple's design and software. Apple stuff ispremium, and increasingly, it's sold as a luxury product as well — think of the $20,000 gold Apple Watch.
一直以來，熱衷于蘋果公司產(chǎn)品的消費者們總為“蘋果稅”怨聲不迭——由于蘋果公司產(chǎn)品設(shè)計和軟件質(zhì)量的優(yōu)勢，你不得不付出比其他公司的類似產(chǎn)品更高的費用。蘋果公司的產(chǎn)品物美價高，乃至逐漸成為了一種奢侈品——想想價值2萬美元的蘋果金表!
But Apple's announcement on Tuesday, in which it revealed a new low-cost iPad and upgraded the least-expensive iPhone, shows that Apple has started to compete on price as well. The tech industry should take note.
然而，本周二蘋果公司舉行了一個發(fā)布會，發(fā)布了一款價格低廉的新款平板電腦,并對較為廉價的蘋果手機進行了革新升級。這意味著蘋果公司加入了價格戰(zhàn)的領(lǐng)域。通信技術(shù)行業(yè)要多加注意了!
If Apple starts using its massive cash pile to undercut its competitors and deflate entire product categories, that's a big deal.
如果蘋果公司開始投入大量資金，用價格優(yōu)勢削弱競爭對手，乃至讓各種電子產(chǎn)品經(jīng)受一次價格大縮水，這就非同小可了。
On Tuesday, Apple dropped the price of a fine, fast, and big iPad to $330 — a price below similar devices from Samsung, Lenovo, and Microsoft. Apple already dominated the high-end tablet market, and just undercut many of its Android competitors.
在周二的發(fā)布會上，蘋果公司宣布某款性能優(yōu)良，運行迅速，尺寸大氣的平板電腦的售價下降到了330美元——這一售價比三星、聯(lián)想、微軟等品牌同類產(chǎn)品的售價都要低。蘋果已經(jīng)控制了高端平板電腦的銷售市場，也讓許多安卓系統(tǒng)的同類競爭者遭遇了釜底抽薪。
Apple's iPhone SE got an upgrade, bumping its default storage up from 16GB to 32GB. It's not a full refresh, but it shows that Apple is still giving love and attention to even its cheapest iPhone.
SE型號的蘋果手機獲得了升級，屢受病詬的16G小內(nèi)存擴展到了32G。這并非脫胎換骨，不過這也說明，即使對自己最廉價的手機產(chǎn)品，蘋果公司仍會給予關(guān)愛和關(guān)注。
The low prices for these two updated device follow a trend that independent Apple analyst Neil Cybart noted last week: Apple "is making its products more accessible through lower pricing."
這兩種革新?lián)Q代的產(chǎn)品價格都非常低廉，印證了獨立分析師Neil Cybart在上周說過的話：“蘋果‘真努力通過低廉的價格靠近更多的消費者’。”
But a company valued as richly as Apple also needs to keep its margins high, and that's why it's also turning into a luxury brand at the same time — note that Apple's iPad Pro debuted at $600, higher than the iPad Air 2 it nominally replaced.
不過像蘋果公司這樣身價高昂的公司也需要保持自己的價格優(yōu)勢，這就是為什么蘋果同時也正在轉(zhuǎn)型成為一個奢侈品品牌——注意，首次與眾人見面的蘋果平板電腦iPad Pro售價為600美元，比其在名義上取代了的 iPad Air 2價格還要昂貴。
