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智能手機真是太過時了。
在今年的拉斯維加斯消費電子展上，手機芯片廠商高通公司（Qualcomm）——全世界絕大多數手機里都有它生產的無線模塊——沒怎么談起手機，反倒是大談特談自家的芯片可以如何用于新興市場，比如車聯網、可穿戴設備和智能電視。
今天，消費電子展這個年度技術會議正式開始。本周一，高通這家位于圣地亞哥的公司發布了一系列新產品，它們是用來吸引汽車廠商和其他另類客戶采用它的技術，使自己的產品變得“更聰明”。它發布的新產品包括：用于汽車業的全新處理器；正式投入商用的AllPlay，也就是高通為各種設備上的流媒體音樂打造的專用平臺；以及用于高端電視的全新驍龍芯片。
為什么高通要從移動這個老本行上突然轉型呢？道理很簡單。高通牢牢地掌控著智能手機領域，這是它未來數年能一直能賺錢的搖錢樹。但它很清楚，高端手機市場的增長已經開始出現頹勢，至少在北美這樣的成熟市場是如此。因此，高通正在努力讓自己的芯片和專利植入從洗衣機到手表所有這些目前還是“傻乎乎的”物體中。
而從現在的情況看，智能手機只是高通的探路尖兵。即將上任的首席執行官斯蒂夫?莫倫科夫在消費電子展的問答環節上告訴現場的聽眾們：“我們發現，在智能手機上的成功正在引領我們在其他領域實現增長。”
高通在所謂的物聯網上押了很大的寶，但盡管多年來一直高調推廣，智能互聯家庭對主流消費者來說卻還是可望而不可即。這主要是因為還有互通性的問題有待攻克（當然咯，高通表示自己已經找到了解決方案）。更重要的是，業內還需要證明帶有“智能芯片”的烤箱就是比那些不帶這種芯片的機器更出色——而且也值得多掏錢。而高通大筆砸錢的另一個領域是可穿戴設備。盡管廠家圍繞全新的不銹鋼Pebble智能手表已經開始大肆造勢，但它也需要在很多方面證明自己的價值。至于說汽車，好吧，我們只能說這不會是第一屆最終要靠所謂車聯網帶動人氣的消費電子展。
高通并不是唯一一家可勁兒顯擺自己的嵌入式應用專業技術的公司。它的老對手英特爾公司（Intel）的老本行盡管跟手機沒什么關系（手機業飛速增長，擠占了它曾經一統天下的PC市場，而它在手機業幾乎毫無作為），但它也很想證明自己在可穿戴設備和互聯家庭這種蓬勃興起的市場里是個有力的競爭者。周一，英特爾展示了自己的智能耳機和手表，還有一個能為移動設備無線充電的碗狀設備。它還推出了一款名為愛迪生（Edison）的系統級芯片，它被吹噓為一個SD卡大小的電腦。
有了這些創新成果，誰還會再關心智能手機呢？（財富中文網）
譯者：清遠 Smartphones are soooo 2013.
At this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, mobile chipmaker Qualcomm (QCOM) -- whose wireless components are found in the vast majority of the world's cell phones -- chose instead to talk about how its chips can be used for fledgling markets such as connected cars, wearables, and smart televisions.
The annual tech confab officially started today. On Monday, the San Diego-based company announced a series of products it hopes will entice automakers and other atypical customers to use its technology to make their products "smarter." Among the announcements: a new processor for the automotive industry; the commercial availability of AllPlay, Qualcomm's platform for streaming music across different gadgets; and new Snapdragon-branded chipsets for high-end television sets.
Why the sudden shift away from its mobile roots? It's simple. Qualcomm has the upper hand in smartphones, a cash cow it can keep milking for years to come. But it knows that growth in high-end mobile devices is already starting to wane, at least in mature markets such as North America. Ergo, Qualcomm is pushing to get its chips and IP inside all sorts of still-"dumb" objects, from washing machines to watches.
Smartphones, it turns out, are just the tip of the spear. "We're seeing the trend of the smartphone leading us to growth in other industries," incoming CEO Steve Mollenkopf told the audience in a question-and-answer session in Las Vegas.
Qualcomm has a lot riding on the so-called Internet of Things, but despite years of promise the connected home is still far from reality for mainstream consumers. There are interoperability issues that still need to be worked out. (Of course, Qualcomm says it has a solution for that problem.) More importantly, the industry has yet to prove that toasters with "smarts" are better -- and worth the added cost -- than those without. Wearables, another area in which Qualcomm is investing, also has a lot to prove, despite the hype surrounding products like the new stainless steel Pebble smartwatch. And as for cars, well, let's just say this isn't the first CES that's been touted as the year connected automobiles finally make it big.
Qualcomm is not the only semiconductor company trying to show off its embedded-application expertise. Rival Intel (INTC) wasn't exactly born mobile -- the company has barely made a dent in an industry that quickly grew to supplant one it dominated -- but it is already trying to prove that it's a contender in burgeoning markets like wearables and the connected home. On Monday, Intel showed off smart headsets, watches and earphones, as well as a bowl-like device that wirelessly charges the depleted batteries of mobile devices. It also introduced a new system-on-a-chip for wearables named Edison, touted as a computer the size of an SD card.
With innovations like that, who cares about smartphones anymore? |
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