硅谷硬件復興阻力重重

例證B：智能手表Pebble

????上個月報道Pebble時，我們曾說下一代硬件——可穿戴計算——已經問世了，谷歌眼鏡和蘋果iWatch注定要失敗。Pebble只有區區11名全職員工，然而迄今已出貨75,000個手表，評論認為，這個設備是個需要改進的偉大概念性產品。一些人認為，它的顯示屏可以再清晰些，標配表帶不要顯得太廉價，目前可以選擇的應用很有限，網絡連接功能也有些問題，至少和iOS設備連接時有問題。老實說，該公司今年的主要目標是幫開發者開發更好的軟件功能，但輿論對此抱懷疑態度。弗雷斯特研究公司（Forrester）的分析師莎拉?羅特曼?艾普斯稱：“Pebble已讓眾多開發者和喜歡新技術產品的人激動不已。它的功能并不豐富，但算得上一款人們期待的智能手機的延伸產品。”不過她認為，這款產品暫時引發的熱潮并不意味著它能在市場上取得更大成功。

Exhibit B: Pebble

????When we wrote about Pebble last month, we said that the next wave of hardware -- wearable computing -- was already here, Google (GOOG) Project Glass and Apple (AAPL) iWatch be damned. While the firm's 11 full-time employees have shipped over 75,000 watches to date, reviews call the device a great concept that needs improvement. Some argue the display could be sharper, the standard watch band less cheap-feeling. App selection remains limited, and the watch has proven to have some connection issues, at least with iOS devices. To be fair, the company's main goal this year is to help developers create better software features for the Pebble, but skeptics remain. "What Pebble has done is captured tremendous excitement from developers and early tech adopters," says Sarah Rotman Epps, a Forrester analyst, who argues that isn't indicative of broader mass-market success. "It doesn't have all the fuctionality yet of something one would expect to be an extension of your smartphone."