評論
打印
This is my last column for The Wall Street Journal, after 22 years of reviewing consumer technology products here.
為《華爾街日報》評測科技類消費品22年后，這是我的最后一篇專欄文章。
So I thought I'd talk about the dozen personal-technology products I reviewed that were most influential over the past two decades. Obviously, narrowing so many products in the most dynamic of modern industries down to 12 is a subjective exercise and others will disagree.
所以我想來談談過去20年我評測過的12個最具影響力的個人科技產品。很顯然，從這個最富活力的現代產業所生產的五花八門的產品中挑選出12個，這是個很主觀的看法，別人也許會有不同意見。
Though most were hits, a couple weren't blockbusters, financially, and one was an outright flop. Instead, I used as my criteria two main things.
雖然大多數產品都一竄而紅，但有幾個卻叫好不叫座，有一個更是一敗涂地。在這里，我來講講我的兩個標準。
First, the products had to improve ease of use and add value for average consumers. That was the guiding principle I laid down in the first sentence of my first column, in 1991: 'Personal computers are just too hard to use, and it's not your fault.'
首先，產品要能提高易用性，能為普通消費者增添價值。這也正是我1991年第一篇專欄文章中頭一句話所提出的指導原則：個人電腦太難用了，這不是你們的錯。
Second, I chose these 12 because each changed the course of digital history by influencing the products and services that followed, or by changing the way people lived and worked. In some cases, the impact of these mass-market products is still unfolding. All of these products had predecessors, but they managed to take their categories to a new level.
其次，我之所以選擇這12個產品，是因為所有這些產品都改變了數碼歷史的進程，它們要么影響了后來追隨而至的產品和服務，要么改變了人們的生活和工作方式。在某些情況下，這些大眾產品仍在釋放影響力。所有這些產品都有“前輩”，但它們做到了將其所屬類別提升至一個新高度。
Some readers will complain that Apple is overrepresented. My answer: Apple introduced more influential, breakthrough products for average consumers than any other company over the years of this column.
一些讀者可能會抱怨說，蘋果(Apple)產品出現的頻率過高。對此我的解釋是，在我撰寫本專欄的這些年里，相比其他任何一家公司，蘋果面向普通消費者推出了更多具有影響力和突破性的產品。
