乔布斯传 第498期:iTunes(1)

 iTunes iTunes

It didn't take Jobs long to realize that music was going to be huge 不久，乔布斯就意识到音乐将是一笔大生意。

By 2000 people were ripping¹ music onto their computers from CDs, 2000年时，人们正热衷于把音乐从CD拷贝到计算机上，

or downloading it from file-sharing services such as Napster, and burning playlists onto their own blank disks. 或者从文件分享服务商那里（比如Napster）下载音乐，然后把自己挑选的音乐刻录进空白CD。

That year the number of blank CDs sold in the United States was 320 million. 那一年，美国的空白CD销量达到3.2亿张。

There were only 281 million people in the country. 而美国总人口也只不过2.81亿人。

That meant some people were really into burning CDs, and Apple wasn't catering² to them. 这说明，有一些人非常喜欢刻录CD，但是苹果却无法满足这一人群的需求。

"I felt like a dope," he told Fortune. "I thought we had missed it. We had to work hard to catch up." 乔布斯告诉《财富》杂志：“我就像一个笨蛋。我知道我们错过了，我们必须要努力追上去。”

Jobs added a CD burner to the iMac, but that wasn't enough. 乔布斯在iMac上加了一个CD刻录光驱，但这还不够。

His goal was to make it simple to transfer³ music from a CD, manage it on your computer, and then burn playlists. 他的目标是把这一过程变得更简单：从CD上传输音乐到计算机、用计算机管理音乐，然后刻录。

Other companies were already making music-management applications, but they were clunky and complex. 其他公司已经在制作一些音乐管理软件了，但这些软件既笨拙又复杂。

One of Jobs's talents was spotting markets that were filled with second-rate products. 乔布斯有一个特长是，一眼就能看出市场上充斥着二流产品。

He looked at the music apps that were available 他看了所有音乐应用程序，

including Real Jukebox, Windows Media Player, and one that HP was including with its CD burner 包括Real Jukebox、Windows Media Player，以及惠普推出的和刻录光驱配套的一款软件，

and came to a conclusion: "They were so complicated⁴ that only a genius could figure out half of their features." 然后他得出了结论：“它们都太复杂了，即使是天才也只能搞明白其中一半的功能。”

 

1 ripping   

adj.撕的，劈的，折的adv.极妙地，非凡地v.扯破，撕坏( rip的现在分词 )；撕成；锯；猛地扯开

参考例句：

• A special news program exposed underhanded auto repair shops that are ripping off senior citizens. 一个特别新闻节目揭露了一家敲榨老年人的卑鄙的汽车维修店。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Look at that man in the blouse, isn't he ripping! 看那个穿着宽罩衫的男人，他多么漂亮！ 来自辞典例句

2 catering   

n. 给养

参考例句：

• Most of our work now involves catering for weddings. 我们现在的工作多半是承办婚宴。
• Who did the catering for your son's wedding? 你儿子的婚宴是由谁承办的？

3 transfer   

n. 迁移, 移动, 换车; v. 转移, 调转, 调任

参考例句：

• He has been kicking against this transfer for weeks. 几周以来他一直反对这次调动。
• I intend to transfer the property to my son. 我想把这笔财产转给我儿子。

4 complicated   

adj.错综复杂的，麻烦的，结构复杂的

参考例句：

• The poem is so complicated that I cannot make out its meaning.这首诗太复杂，我理解不了它的意思。
• This is the most complicated case I have ever handled.这是我所处理过的最为复杂的案子。