VOA慢速英语2011--Apple's Lion Is Latest to Join Download-

Economic Report - Apple's Lion Is Latest to Join Download-Only Trend in Software

This is the VOA Special English Economic Report.
Apple's new version of its desktop¹ operating system for Mac computers is called Mac OS X Lion. Apple says this latest OS X upgrade has over two hundred new features. But one big difference is how the company will sell it. The release is download-only.
Apple says Lion is coming to its App Store in July. The price is twenty-nine dollars and ninety-nine cents. Users without the current version, Snow Leopard², will have to pay an extra thirty dollars to download the new release.
Last year, Apple had more than five hundred million dollars in sales of its desktop operating system.
Experts say download-only software is getting more common.
Dave Wolf is Vice³ President for Strategy at Cynergy Systems in Washington. His company helps software designers to develop and market products. He says the computer that many people use most is their mobile phone.
People who download apps to smartphones have come to expect quick and easy software updates. Now, Dave Wolf says phones are shaping expectations for other computers.
DAVE WOLF: "I think this is a case where we’re seeing the same consumer demand, say, in a phone market moving to the desktop and the same consumer demand moving into work in the enterprise."
Downloadable programs mean fewer trips to stores to buy software. But that can also mean fewer sales for stores that depend on physical products, including most video games. And not everyone has a high-speed Internet connection to make downloads quick and easy.
But Dave Wolf says the cost savings⁴ are a big help to small businesses trying to reach a wide market.
DAVE WOLF: "I think it’s a boon⁵ to small software companies and entrepreneurs who have incredible ideas and want to get them out to market.”
He says the Internet radio service Pandora, for example, can offer free music because it has no costs of selling discs in stores. This week Pandora began selling shares of stock to the public.
Next to go may be software stored on individual computers. Many companies are moving to cloud computing⁶. The idea is to save money by storing software on somebody else's servers in large data centers.
This way people can easily access their music library or other applications from any device. This is not the case for users of Apple's iTunes. Now Apple thinks it has a solution with a cloud-computing service called iCloud.
And Microsoft has developed Windows Azure⁷. This platform is for businesses and software developers to use Internet-based applications.
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. You can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Mario Ritter.

1 desktop   

n.桌面管理系统程序；台式

参考例句：

• My computer is a desktop computer of excellent quality.我的计算机是品质卓越的台式计算机。
• Do you know which one is better,a laptop or a desktop?你知道哪一种更好，笔记本还是台式机？

2 leopard   

n.豹

参考例句：

• I saw a man in a leopard skin yesterday.我昨天看见一个穿着豹皮的男人。
• The leopard's skin is marked with black spots.豹皮上有黑色斑点。

3 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

4 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

5 boon   

n.恩赐，恩物，恩惠

参考例句：

• A car is a real boon when you live in the country.在郊外居住，有辆汽车确实极为方便。
• These machines have proved a real boon to disabled people.事实证明这些机器让残疾人受益匪浅。

6 computing   

n.计算

参考例句：

• to work in computing 从事信息处理
• Back in the dark ages of computing, in about 1980, they started a software company. 早在计算机尚未普及的时代（约1980年），他们就创办了软件公司。

7 azure   

adj.天蓝色的，蔚蓝色的

参考例句：

• His eyes are azure.他的眼睛是天蓝色的。
• The sun shone out of a clear azure sky.清朗蔚蓝的天空中阳光明媚。