金融時報:蘋果需要重新定義數(shù)字經(jīng)濟(jì)

蘋果需要重新定義數(shù)字經(jīng)濟(jì)

當(dāng)喬布斯在2007年發(fā)布第一代iPhone時，他宣布蘋果“重新發(fā)明了手機(jī)”，但事實上，真正對每個人的生活產(chǎn)生重大影響的并不是手機(jī)本身，而是手機(jī)中的App。琳瑯滿目的App代表著新一代硅谷巨頭，也代表著數(shù)字經(jīng)濟(jì)的新紀(jì)元。但同時，它催生了數(shù)據(jù)主權(quán)的問題。怎樣才能讓用戶控制自己的數(shù)據(jù)？這是一個迫在眉睫的難題。

測試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識：

envisage[?n'v?z?d?] vt.想象，設(shè)想

prevail[pr?'ve?l] vi.獲勝, 盛行，主導(dǎo)

fodder ['f?d?(r)] n.飼料，草料

litter ['l?t?(r)] v.亂丟垃圾，弄亂

corpse [k??ps] n.尸體

grandiose['ɡrændi??s] adj.宏偉的，堂皇的

steamroller['sti?mro?l?r] n. 壓路機(jī)

catalyse ['kæt??la?z] v. 催化

Now Apple needs to reinvent the digital economy(728 words)

By John Thornhill

When Steve Jobs launched the iPhone in 2007 he claimed it was a revolutionary product that would change everything. Hyperbole was, of course, his second tongue. But a decade on, it could be argued that Jobs was largely right, even if not in the way he imagined.

The launch of Apple’s latest iPhone X in Cupertino last week once again highlighted what a phenomenon the smartphone has become. With more than 1bn devices sold, the iPhone probably ranks as the most profitable product in history, helping to turn Apple into the most valuable public company in the world.

But, as Brian Merchant explains in his snappy book The One Device, The Secret History of the iPhone, the smartphone has evolved in ways that Jobs did not envisage. His primary purpose was to reinvent the telephone by throwing in an iPod and a web browser. But it was the subsequent launch of the App Store that super-charged the iPhone’s growth and created a whole new branch of economic activity. The iPhone’s killer app was as a store for others’ apps.

Apple’s achievement was to put a supercomputer in everyone’s pocket and allow others to figure out how to use it. The Apollo Guidance Computer, which helped man land on the moon in 1969, contained 12,300 transistors. The iPhone 7 contains 3.3bn. In Mr Merchant’s words, this iPhone supercomputer has become the “foundational instrument of modern life”.

That app economy has spawned a new generation of Silicon Valley companies such as Uber, Instagram, Snapchat, and Airbnb and weaponised social media businesses such as Facebook. Adding in rival app ecosystems, such as Google-Android and China’s super-app communities, the AppAnnie data company estimates that consumers will download a total of 197bn apps this year, rising to 353bn by 2021.

That explosion of app usage has led to a surge of personal communication, consumer convenience, and on-demand entertainment. No longer can a teenager in possession of a smartphone ever again complain of being bored.

But this technological revolution has also come at a cost in terms of economic disruption, mass distraction and the erosion of privacy. In Europe, where citizens’ rights tend to trump consumer convenience, a different sensibility prevails. Here, US tech companies are sometimes portrayed as vampirical colonialists, sucking all the data out of European consumers, reducing them to bloodless advertising fodder.

The EU has responded by tackling some of the US tech giants on competition grounds and adopting a far-reaching General Data Privacy Regulation that comes into force next year. The European Commission has estimated that by 2020 the value of citizens’ personal data will reach €1tn, almost 8 per cent of EU gross domestic product. It is determined that this valuable resource should be utilised more responsibly.

An EU-funded report published on Monday sketches out a plan for reclaiming digital sovereignty by creating an alternative data ecosystem. The Decode (Decentralised Citizens Owned Data Ecosystem) plan describes how individual users, businesses and communities could benefit from the creation of a true sharing economy, a data commons.

Decode will test its methodology in pilot projects in Amsterdam and Barcelona in the next two years. To take one example, Decode will help the Amsterdam municipality work with the FairBnB community platform to provide short-term accommodation for visitors, reinvesting profits in local initiatives. This is a response to Airbnb, which stands accused of pushing up rents and failing to provide data about hosts who violate local laws.

It would be a wonderful thing if such projects flourished and Europe could pioneer a more plural form of data capitalism. Users around the world, including the US, would cheer them on.

But Europe’s landscape is littered with the corpses of grandiose tech projects that perished in the marketplace. Remember how France’s former president Jacques Chirac wanted to create Quaero to take on Google? Sadly, the state-backed search engine got lost somewhere along the way. In some respects, this latest Decode initiative feels like an attempt to pick up digital pennies in the path of an advancing steamroller.

What would catalyse a true transition is if a leading tech company were to help redesign the digital economy by enabling users to control their own data. What is needed is another revolutionary product that could change everything. Apple, which uses the data it amasses to build better products rather than to sell on to advertisers, seems most attuned to this philosophy. Over to you, Cupertino?

請根據(jù)你所讀到的文章內(nèi)容，完成以下自測題目：

1.What is Apple's most influential invention in terms of innovation economy?

A. A new generation of tech companies.

B. A super-app community.

C. A store for others’ apps.

D. A a supercomputer in everyone’s pocket.

答案(1)

2.Why do US tech giants meet with opposition in Europe?

A. Because European citizens want to control their own property instead of leaving them to US companies.

B. Because US tech companies caused the mass economic disruption in European countries.

C. Because US tech companies profit from sucking all the data out of European consumers.

D. Because citizens’ rights are highly valued in Europe, which often goes against US tech companies.

答案(2)

3.The EU plans to create an alternative data ecosystem in order to ____.

A. provide short-term accommodation for visitors.

B. increase digital sovereignty of European citizens.

C. provide data about landlords who violate local laws.

D. pioneer a more plural form of data capitalism.

答案(3)

4.The author's attitude towards the Decode Project?

A. Optimistic.

B. Critical.

C. Indifferent.

D. Cautious.

答案(4)

* * *

(1) 答案：C.A store for others’ apps.

解釋：喬布斯做出的愿望是重新發(fā)明手機(jī)。然而是后來App Store的推出大幅推動了iPhone的增長，并創(chuàng)造出了一種全新的經(jīng)濟(jì)活動。

(2) 答案：D.Because citizens’ rights are highly valued in Europe, which often goes against US tech companies.

解釋：在歐洲，人們把公民權(quán)利看得比用戶的方便更重要，這種不同的理念占據(jù)了主流。在這里，美國科技公司常常被視作嗜血的殖民者，吸走歐洲用戶的數(shù)據(jù)以喂飽廣告商。

(3) 答案：B.increase digital sovereignty of European citizens.

解釋：周一，一個由歐盟支持的研究報告介紹了Decode計劃，該計劃將創(chuàng)造一個替代數(shù)據(jù)生態(tài)系統(tǒng)來回收數(shù)據(jù)主權(quán)。

(4) 答案：D.Cautious.

解釋：作者認(rèn)為，Decode計劃一旦成功，歐洲將會開創(chuàng)更多元的數(shù)據(jù)資本主義形式，全世界的用戶都將因此受益。但也有一些先例預(yù)示著歐洲的宏偉科技項目可能會失敗。