The First Launch Event

首次盛大的產(chǎn)品發(fā)布會

The introduction of the Apple II was scheduled to coincide with the first West Coast Computer Faire, to be held in April 1977 in San Francisco, organized by a Homebrew stalwart, Jim Warren. Jobs signed Apple up for a booth as soon as he got the information packet. He wanted to secure a location right at the front of the hall as a dramatic way to launch the Apple II, and so he shocked Wozniak by paying $5,000 in advance. “Steve decided that this was our big launch,” said Wozniak. “We would show the world we had a great machine and a great company.”

AppleII的發(fā)布時間被設定為與首屆西海岸電腦展覽會同步。該展會將于1977年4月在舊金山舉辦。展會的組織者是一名家釀計算機俱樂部的中堅會員——吉姆·沃倫（JimWarren），喬布斯在得到展會的信息之后立刻為蘋果公司預定了一個展位。他想確保得到展廳最前端的位置，這樣就可以用最盛大的方式來發(fā)布AppleII，于是他預先支付了5000美元，這讓沃茲大感震驚。“史蒂夫認為這是我們的重要發(fā)布，”沃茲尼亞克說，“我們要讓全世界知道，我們有很棒的電腦，我們是一家很棒的公司。”

It was an application of Markkula’s admonition that it was important to “impute” your greatness by making a memorable impression on people, especially when launching a new product. That was reflected in the care that Jobs took with Apple’s display area. Other exhibitors had card tables and poster board signs. Apple had a counter draped in black velvet and a large pane of backlit Plexiglas with Janoff’s new logo. They put on display the only three Apple IIs that had been finished, but empty boxes were piled up to give the impression that there were many more on hand.

這是馬庫拉的營銷準則的一次實際應用：通過給人們留下深刻的印象從而把你和產(chǎn)品的卓越品質(zhì)“灌輸”給他們，這是至關重要的一點，尤其是發(fā)布新產(chǎn)品的時候。這也反映在了喬布斯對蘋果公司的展示區(qū)域所下的工夫上。其他的參展商用的都是普通的桌子和硬紙板做的牌子。蘋果則用上了蓋著黑色天鵝絨的柜臺，和一大塊背光式的有機玻璃，上面印著雅諾夫新設計的標識。他們展示的是僅有的三臺AppleII成品，但在周圍堆滿了空的包裝箱，這樣就顯得他們擁有充足的存貨。

Jobs was furious that the computer cases had arrived with tiny blemishes on them, so he had his handful of employees sand and polish them. The imputing even extended to gussying up Jobs and Wozniak. Markkula sent them to a San Francisco tailor for three-piece suits, which looked faintly ridiculous on them, like tuxes on teenagers. “Markkula explained how we would all have to dress up nicely, how we should appear and look, how we should act,” Wozniak recalled.

送到展會的電腦箱子上都有細小的污點，這讓喬布斯大為光火，他讓為數(shù)不多的幾名員工把這些污點都打磨掉。“灌輸”工作甚至還擴展到了給喬布斯和沃茲尼亞克穿衣打扮上。馬庫拉讓他們?nèi)ヒ娨粋€舊金山的裁縫，定做了三件套西裝，但他們穿上之后顯得很滑稽，就好像小孩子穿著晚禮服一樣。“馬庫拉解釋了我們必須怎樣盛裝打扮，以怎樣的形象登臺亮相，以及怎樣舉手投足。”沃茲尼亞克回憶說。

It was worth the effort. The Apple II looked solid yet friendly in its sleek beige case, unlike the intimidating metal-clad machines and naked boards on the other tables. Apple got three hundred orders at the show, and Jobs met a Japanese textile maker, Mizushima Satoshi, who became Apple’s first dealer in Japan.

這些努力是值得的。置于漂亮的米黃色箱子內(nèi)的AppleII顯得既牢固結實又親切友好，完全不像其他展臺上那些鍍著金屬的丑陋機器或者干脆裸露的電路板。蘋果在這次展會上接到了300份訂單，喬布斯還遇到了一個日本的紡織品制造商水島聰（MizushimaSatoshi），后來這個人成為了蘋果在日本的第一位經(jīng)銷商。

The fancy clothes and Markkula’s injunctions could not, however, stop the irrepressible Wozniak from playing some practical jokes. One program that he displayed tried to guess people’s nationality from their last name and then produced the relevant ethnic jokes. He also created and distributed a hoax brochure for a new computer called the “Zaltair,” with all sorts of fake ad-copy superlatives like “Imagine a car with five wheels.” Jobs briefly fell for the joke and even took pride that the Apple II stacked up well against the Zaltair in the comparison chart. He didn’t realize who had pulled the prank until eight years later, when Woz gave him a framed copy of the brochure as a birthday gift.

然而，華麗的服裝和馬庫拉的諄諄教導都無法阻止閑不住的沃茲槁些惡作劇，他展示的一個程序，會根據(jù)人們的姓氏來猜測國籍，然后冒出一些跟種族有關的笑話。他還自己印制并分發(fā)惡作劇的小冊子，介紹一種新型的名叫“扎爾泰”（Zaltaire）的電腦，附上了各種從別的廣告上抄來的夸張言辭，諸如“想象一輛有5個輪子的汽車……”喬布斯輕易地信以為真，甚至還因為AppleII在和扎爾泰的對比中不相上下而頗感自豪。直到8年后，沃茲將一份鑲了框的宣傳冊送給喬布斯做生日禮物，他才意識到當年是誰制造了這場鬧劇。