CHAPTER FIFTEEN

第十五章THE LAUNCH

麥 金塔電腦的發布

A Dent in the Universe

在宇宙中留下印跡

The “1984” ad

Real Artists Ship

真正的藝術家總能完成作品

The high point of the October 1983 Apple sales conference in Hawaii was a skit based on a TV show called The Dating Game. Jobs played emcee, and his three contestants, whom he had convinced to fly to Hawaii, were Bill Gates and two other software executives, Mitch Kapor and Fred Gibbons. As the show’s jingly theme song played, the three took their stools. Gates, looking like a high school sophomore, got wild applause from the 750 Apple salesmen when he said, “During 1984, Microsoft expects to get half of its revenues from software for the Macintosh.” Jobs, clean-shaven and bouncy, gave a toothy smile and asked if he thought that the Macintosh’s new operating system would become one of the industry’s new standards. Gates answered, “To create a new standard takes not just making something that’s a little bit different, it takes something that’s really new and captures people’s imagination. And the Macintosh, of all the machines I’ve ever seen, is the only one that meets that standard.”

1983年10月，蘋果公司在夏威夷舉行銷售會議，喬布斯上演了一出根據電視節目《約會游戲》改編的小品劇，掀起了會議的髙潮。喬布斯扮演主持人，三位“單身漢嘉賓”分別是比爾·蓋茨和另外兩位軟件領域的高管——米切爾·卡普爾（MitchKapor）與弗雷德·吉本斯（FredGibbons）。開場音樂演奏完畢，三位嘉賓就座并進行自我介紹。蓋茨看上去就像個髙二的學生，他說“微軟期望1984年全年收入的一半都來自為麥金塔電腦研發的軟件”。臺下750名蘋果銷售人員對他的話報以熱烈掌聲。喬布斯胡子刮得很干凈，精神飽滿，他笑著問蓋茨是否認為麥金塔電腦的新操作系統會成為行業的新標準之一。蓋茨答道：“要創建新標準并非只做出一點不同的東西就夠了，而是需要真正全新且能抓住人們想象力的東西。在我見過的所有機器中，只有麥金塔電腦符合這一標準。”

But even as Gates was speaking, Microsoft was edging away from being primarily a collaborator with Apple to being more of a competitor. It would continue to make application software, like Microsoft Word, for Apple, but a rapidly increasing share of its revenue would come from the operating system it had written for the IBM personal computer. The year before, 279,000 Apple IIs were sold, compared to 240,000 IBM PCs and its clones. But the figures for 1983 were coming in starkly different: 420,000 Apple IIs versus 1.3 million IBMs and its clones. And both the Apple III and the Lisa were dead in the water.

盡管蓋茨當時如此表示，但是微軟正逐漸褪去蘋果主要合作者的身份，而更多地以競爭對手的姿態出現。微軟仍將繼續為蘋果公司編寫應用軟件，如Word，但是其快速增長的那部分收入則來自為IBM個人電腦所編寫的操作系統。1982年，蘋果個人電腦AppleII的銷量為27.9萬臺，IBM個人電腦及其同類產品共售出24萬臺。1983年的數據則呈現了大逆轉：AppleII電腦銷量42萬臺，IBM個人電腦及其同類產品銷量130萬臺，而AppleIII電腦和麗薩電腦都徹底失敗。

Just when the Apple sales force was arriving in Hawaii, this shift was hammered home on the cover of Business Week. Its headline: “Personal Computers: And the Winner Is . . . IBM.” The story inside detailed the rise of the IBM PC. “The battle for market supremacy is already over,” the magazine declared. “In a stunning blitz, IBM has taken more than 26% of the market in two years, and is expected to account for half the world market by 1985. An additional 25% of the market will be turning out IBM-compatible machines.”

就在蘋果銷售人員抵達夏威夷參加銷售會議時，《商業周刊》（BusinessWeek）當期的封面報道凸顯了這一形勢轉變，其標題為：“個人電腦：贏家是……IBM”。文章詳細介紹了IBM個人電腦的崛起?！皩κ袌鲋鲗ц镜臓帄Z已經結束，”《商業周刊》宣布，“通過驚人的閃電出擊，用兩年的時間獲取了超過26%的個人電腦市場份額。同時預計到1985年，該公司將占領全球一半的市場。IBM兼容機則將占據25%的市場份額?！?/span>

That put all the more pressure on the Macintosh, due out in January 1984, three months away, to save the day against IBM. At the sales conference Jobs decided to play the showdown to the hilt. He took the stage and chronicled all the missteps made by IBM since 1958, and then in ominous tones described how it was now trying to take over the market for personal computers: “Will Big Blue dominate the entire computer industry? The entire information age? Was George Orwell right about 1984?” At that moment a screen came down from the ceiling and showed a preview of an upcoming sixty-second television ad for the Macintosh. In a few months it was destined to make advertising history, but in the meantime it served its purpose of rallying Apple’s demoralized sales force. Jobs had always been able to draw energy by imagining himself as a rebel pitted against the forces of darkness. Now he was able to energize his troops with the same vision.

這一切都令將于3個月后（即1984年1月）發布的麥金塔電腦壓力更大，它將成為扭轉敗局的關鍵。在銷售會議上，喬布斯決定全力以赴，一決髙下。他走上臺，歷數IBM自1958年以來的所有失誤，然后他的聲音里帶著可怖的意味開始描述IBM正如何試圖主宰整個個人電腦市場：“我們能讓IBM主宰整個電腦產業嗎？我們能讓控制整個信息時代嗎？喬治·奧威爾在《1984》中的描述會成真嗎？”話音剛落，一塊屏幕徐徐落下，播放了一段專為麥金塔電腦制作的廣告片，這則即將推出的60秒廣告有點兒科幻電影的意味。在數月之后，這則廣告注定要名垂史冊。但當時，它凝聚了蘋果公司銷售人員低落的士氣。一直以來，喬布斯都將自己想象成一個抗擊黑暗勢力的反叛者，并從中獲取能量?，F在，他也這樣激發自己的團隊。

There was one more hurdle: Hertzfeld and the other wizards had to finish writing the code for the Macintosh. It was due to start shipping on Monday, January 16. One week before that, the engineers concluded they could not make that deadline.

不過當時還有一個障礙。赫茨菲爾德和其他工程師必須完成麥金塔電腦的編程工作，而程序已定于1月16日（周一）交付運行，距離交付日只剩一周的時候，工程師們認為他們無法按時完成工作。程序還存在一些毛病。

Jobs was at the Grand Hyatt in Manhattan, preparing for the press previews, so a Sunday morning conference call was scheduled. The software manager calmly explained the situation to Jobs, while Hertzfeld and the others huddled around the speakerphone holding their breath. All they needed was an extra two weeks. The initial shipments to the dealers could have a version of the software labeled “demo,” and these could be replaced as soon as the new code was finished at the end of the month. There was a pause. Jobs did not get angry; instead he spoke in cold, somber tones. He told them they were really great. So great, in fact, that he knew they could get this done. “There’s no way we’re slipping!” he declared. There was a collective gasp in the Bandley building work space. “You guys have been working on this stuff for months now, another couple weeks isn’t going to make that much of a difference. You may as well get it over with. I’m going to ship the code a week from Monday, with your names on it.”

當時，喬布斯正在曼哈頓的君悅酒店（GmndHyatt）為媒體溝通會作準備，因此，同工程師的電話會議就定在周日上午進行。軟件經理鎮定地向喬布斯說明了情況，赫茨菲爾德和其他人都圍著電話，屏息凝神。他們只要求將期限延長兩周，公司可以先給經銷商一個“演示版”軟件，只要新程序在這個月底完成，就能馬上進行替換。片刻沉默之后，喬布斯并沒有生氣。相反，他用冷靜低沉的語調告訴工程師們他們真的很棒。事實上，這些人的確非常棒，喬布斯相信他們能夠搞定。“我們決不會推遲！”他鄭重聲明。電話另一頭，班德利大樓工作間里的工程師們都倒吸了一口氣?！斑@個東西你們已經做了好幾個月了，再多兩個星期也不會有很大差別。你們還是趕快把它做完。我會在一周后將你們的程序交付運行，上面會標有你們的名字。”