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I remember the moment when the BlackBerry was cool. It was a fleeting moment when I was kind of cool too.
我還記得黑萄手機最酷的時代。那時的我也非常酷，但那個時代巳經隨著時間的流逝漸漸走遠了。
That was more than eleven years ago, during the Gore-Bush election of 2000. Part of the coolness of Gore’s campaign was the young crowd that made up his staff and that they were all using BlackBerrys. At the time, the BlackBerry wasn’t even a smartphone, it was still a PDA (Personal Data Assistant) and was competing head to head with Palm. All of the tech people wanted their hands on a BlackBerry. I had a BlackBerry back then. My clients would squeal with excitement whenever I used it. They envkrasly1 watched as emails were “pushed” to me automatically. Wow. I was hot. I was cool. I had a BlackBerry.
11年前的2000年還是小布什在競選總統的時候。布什陣營里有一部分很潮的 年輕人，他們大多都在用黑霉手機。那時黑莓手機還只是個人商務機，不是智能手 機，還在與掌上電腦比拼市場份額。每個對科技感興趣的人都希望他們可以擁有一 部黑莓手機，我也緊跟潮流使用黑莓手機。每次我的客戶們看到我在使用黑莓，都 會非常興奮地叫喊出來。他們總是用很艷羨的目光看著電子郵件自動地“推”向我。 哇，那時的我是多么時尚,多么搶眼。我有黑莓手機！
Now things have changed. Palm is no longer a player. And, by the looks of things, the BlackBerry is on its way out too. Yet here I am, still clinging to2 my once cool device. And I’m looking more like a loser every day. That’s because BlackBerry is no longer cool And neither am I. I keep seeing signs pointing to a future without the BlackBerry.
但現在不同了。個人掌上電腦已經落伍了,而且從外型上看，黑莓手機也逐漸 落伍了。但我卻還在執著地使用著曾經流行一時的電子產品。這讓我每天都看起來 像是個失敗者。因為黑莓已經不再那么潮了,而我也一樣。我一直等著看黑莓時代 過后的市場新的風向標。
For example, recently Verizon released their version of the iPhone. At the time I emailed about a dozen tech guys I know, owners and employees at IT firms, and asked them if I should bite the bullet, ditch the BlackBerry and get a different smartphone. I was laughed at. “What, you still have a BlackBerry?” one tech guy emailed me back. “What a loser! ” A full 80% of those guys told me to go out and immediately buy the iPhone. The remainder recommended a Droid device. Not a single person told me to get another BlackBerry. And the amazing thing is that these tech guys were mostly Microsoft people. So you，d think they，d be telling me to buy anything other than an Apple or Google product. Their enthusiasm no love of their iPhone or Droid device said it all: I’m a loser. And the BlackBerry is toast.
例如，最近Verizon公司推出了iPhone手機。我發了十幾封郵件問那些在IT公司 工作的朋友，其中有老板也有員工,我問他們是否應該忍痛拋棄黑莓換一個新的智 能手機？結果被他們嘲笑了。一位朋友給我回郵件驚訝地問什么？你現在還在用 黑莓？你也太落伍了!“他們之中80%的人都說我已經太落后了，應該馬上換iphone手機，我的朋友沒有一個建議我再買黑莓了。而更另我驚訝的是，這些rr行業的人 大多數都是微軟的擁護者，所以他們也絕對不會建議我買蘋果或者谷歌的手機產 品。他們對此的狂熱，不，對iphone或者Droid的喜愛都向我傳達一個信息:我已經落 伍了，黑毒已經過時了。
Clients I know who once loved their BlackBerry are jumping ship. John’s a client of mine who owns a fifty person job shop. He’s not the most technical guy around. But he’s not a loser like me. That’s because he used to own a BlackBerry, and he was happy with it. But about a month ago his contract came up. So he decided to switch to an iPhone. And he loves this phone. He loves the interface, the browsing, the apps everything. BlackBerry users don’t have this kind of passion about their smartphone.
我的一位客戶曾經也是黑莓的追捧者，而現在已經投向其他品牌了。我的一位 客戶約翰，擁有一家50人的商店，他不是電子行業的人，但是他卻不像我這樣落后 于時代。因為他曾經是黑莓的用戶，也非常喜歡黑莓,但是一個月前他的合同到期 之后，他決定換成iphone，并且他一下子就喜歡上了這款手機。他鐘愛iphone的界 面、瀏覽器及其附件等等。而黑莓的用戶則對他們的智能手機沒有這樣的激情。
The other thing I noticed about the BlackBerry is that you can’t find accessories3 for it anywhere but in the phone store or online. Go into any Walmart or Best Buy and try to find a screen protector or car adaptor for your BlackBerry and you’ll be shown to a corner where they keep the damaged items and left over Christmas ornaments. Meanwhile, there are aisles of accessories and add-ons for the iPhone and Droids available. I feel like such a loser when I have to pull out my BlackBerry and explain I need a new case for it. The hipster salesperson would just roll his eyes.
我所注意到的另外一點是，你只能在手機店或者網上找到黑莓手機的配件。如 果你試圖在沃爾瑪或者百思買這樣的地方找到黑莓的屏保或者車載轉換器，你會 被帶到超市的角落，那里通常是放置已經有些損壞的商品或者是圣誕節裝飾品。而 iphone和Droids卻都有自己的配件貨架和通道。當我必須在一堆破舊商品里淘我的 黑莓配件并且向店員詢問哪里有新的配件時，我覺得自己就像是一個失敗者。那些 時輋的店員會對我不屑一顧。
I don’t want to be a loser anymore. I want to be a winner. Like Charlie Sheen. And Ralph Macchio on “Dancing With The Stars.” And John.
我不想再做一個落伍的人了，我要變成潮人，就像査理?辛和拉夫?馬奇奧在 《與星共舞》中的表演一樣。
And yet I continue to resist moving to the iPhone or a Droid device. It’s not because I don’t think they’re good phones. I think they’re great phones. It’s just that I don’t want to be a loser again. And the choices are getting too complicated. Back in the day, there were lots of desktop applications to choose to help me run my business. And they all ran on Windows. Today there are lots of smartphone apps to choose. But they’reall different and not compatible with other smartphone operating systems.
但是我繼續拒絕成為iphone或Droid的用戶，這倒不是因為我認為他們不夠好， 我認為他們是很棒的手機，我只是不想再次成為一個失敗的落伍者。選擇變得太復 雜。現在有很多的電腦應用供應商推薦我使用他們的產品，他們都是在Windows系統上進行操作的。今天有很多的智能手機配套附件可供選擇，但是他們都不同，并 且很難與其他的運行系統兼容。
