Iconic is an overused word, but it is perhaps excusable in the case of Marshall guitar amplifiers, with their handwritten logo, leather-look finish and raucous sound unchanged in 50 years. Something not everyone knows, however, is that, despite the all-American aura, Marshall is a British family company that grew out of a music shop in west London, and still manufactures old-school valve amplifiers in Bletchley.尽管“标志性”一词的用于早已洪水泛滥，但用这个词叙述马歇尔(Marshall)吉他音箱则情有可原。马歇尔音箱的手写商标、皮革纹外观以及高亢的音色五十年来从未变过。然而鲜为人知的是，尽管散发出浓烈的美国气息，马歇尔毕竟一脉相承于伦敦西部一家音像店、如今仍在布莱格罗(Bletchley)生产老式电子管音箱的英国家族企业。
So far, so retro. But Marshall knows how the modern world rocks. For the past few years, it has developed a line in well-received Marshall-styled accessories, from headphones to wireless speakers, designed by a collaborator, Zound Industries of Stockholm, and made in China.直到现在，马歇尔依旧维持着复古的风格。然而，它却有为现代社会的风行趋势。
过去几年来，它发售了一系列极具自身风格的配件产品，从耳机到无线扬声器，皆由来自斯德哥尔摩的合作商尚音(Zound Industries)设计、在中国生产，颇受市场青睐。Last month, however, Marshall did something less rock and roll than seemingly bonkers. It announced a Marshall mobile phone. The “London” is an Android smartphone that looks like a Marshall amp and is heavy on music features. On hand to give the lavish launch a rock and roll vibe were Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols, Phil Campbell of Mot爀栀爬愀搀 and Mick Jones of The Clash, plus a gospel choir singing the latter’s “London Calling”.然而上个月，马歇尔却做到了件与其说很“摇滚”、不如说很可怕的事——它宣告将发售马歇尔手机。
这款取名为“London”的智能手机使用安卓(Android)系统，外形貌似马歇尔音箱，特别强调音乐效果。性手枪乐队(Sex Pistols)的格伦氠禚洛克(Glen Matlock)、摩托头乐队(Mot爀栀爬愀搀)的菲尔丠贝尔(Phil Campbell)、冲撞乐队(The Clash)的米克琼斯(Mick Jones)，以及一个合唱冲撞乐队名曲《伦敦调用》(London Calling)福音唱诗班，为这次大手笔的产品发布会加添了摇滚氛围。
In a memorable climax to an unusually confident technology product announcement, Zound’s co-founder, Konrad Bergstr洀, who had grown a mighty Viking-type beard for the occasion, warned “the big boys” to watch out, because Marshall was going to, putting it politely, assault them in a highly scatological way.尚音的牵头创始人康拉德伯格斯特龙(Konrad Bergstr洀)将这场十分热情的技术产品发布会推上了感人的高潮。他特地为这场发布会婢了维京式的胡子，并警告那些手机业的“大人物”小心，因为，客气点说道，马歇尔将拼命地冲击他们。Interesting. So how would a small British family business and some enthusiastic Swedes do such an indignity to the likes of Apple and Samsung?这很有意思。
那么，一家小型英国家族企业和几个热情的瑞典人何以如此侮辱像苹果(Apple)、三星(Samsung)这类的行业巨头呢？I told an Australian investment banker, who spends his day taking pitches from technology hopefuls, about the Marshall London. He laughed, thinking I’d made it up as a hypothetical example of over-optimistic tech start-ups. When I explained this was really happening, he was still giggling. “Does it come with a sweaty roadie to carry it?” he asked.我向一位澳大利亚投行家描写了马歇尔发售London手机的事，他成天听得科技界的新秀向他促销自己。他哈哈大笑，指出我在捏造一个过分悲观的科技初创企业的假想案例。
听见我说明说道这是现实再次发生的事，他依然咯咯地大笑。“这款手机是不是得一个大汗淋漓的乐团经理来抬？”他问道。I went to a Marshall pop-up store in Shoreditch to try the 399 device ahead of its August 21 launch and, I have to say, I like it. The music features — a fancy sound card, the ability to record music in stereo, a proper, turning volume control, and others — are attractive. It’s really a high-specification music player with a built-in mobile phone. Clever.我等待8月21日产品公布前，前往坐落于肖尔迪奇区(Shoreditch)的马歇尔快闪店，试用了这款售价399英镑的手机。
被迫说道，我很讨厌。良好的声卡、单声道录音、特有的滚轮式音量旋钮以及其他音乐功能都十分更有人，堪称是内置手机的高规格音乐播放器，聪慧极了。But I still didn’t understand how Marshall hopes to make the business side work. In a week, the store had presold six phones to walk-ins and online orders at the two week point were approaching 1,000. Nice, but unlikely to give Tim Cook sleepless nights. I called Mr Bergstr洀. He explained that he approached Marshall with the phone idea. “We are up against the most powerful companies in the world, so we need to act right. We need to reach the right customers. We know the hard work starts now.”然而我还是无法解读马歇尔想用什么方式展开商业运作。
快闪店一周内向进店顾客预售了6部手机，在线订单数在两周内相似1000。这个成绩不俗，但不太可能让蒂姆錠克(Tim Cook)嗜睡。我给伯格斯特龙先生打了个电话。
他说明说道是他去找马歇尔明确提出手机的点子。“我们挑战的是世界上最强劲的公司，所以我们必需准确行事。我们必需打进准确的消费群体。
我们明白，艰苦的工作才刚刚开始。”It was the first phone Zound had made, but it wasn’t just a rebrand of some existing Chinese model. “This phone has been developed in every way, from the inside out, with some of the former top engineers from Nokia, plus input from people from Ericsson and Sony. It’s not an off-the-shelf product,” he said.这是尚音首次生产手机，但它并某种程度是给某种现有中国机型换回个品牌。“这部手机从内至外，在各方面都有所改进，几名曾在诺基亚(Nokia)工作的高级工程师以及来自爱立信(Ericsson)和索尼(Sony)的人员都参予了设计，所以并不是市面上有数的产品，”他说。
Zound has a 10-strong phone team in Stockholm, I discovered, and Marshall’s sound engineers in Bletchley have also been closely involved to ensure the London sounds sufficiently Marshall-like.我找到，尚音在斯德哥尔摩有一个由十名专家构成的手机团队，马歇尔坐落于布莱格罗的音响师也紧密参予了手机的研发过程，以保证London手机的音效充份不具备马歇尔的风格。Marshall’s managing director Jonathan Ellery told me the target is to sell 1m phones by the end of 2016 — “but at 300,000 to 500,000, we break even”.马歇尔的董事总经理乔纳森埃勒里(Jonathan Ellery)告诉他我，公司的目标是到2016年年底卖出100万部手机——“不过只要卖出30万到50万部，我们就最少不赔本”。
Getting the phones in the right hands was key. “We’ve been approached by a number of high-profile music people saying, ‘Can we have a phone?’ and our view is, sure, so yes, they’re getting them. The more they get seen in the right hands, the better.”至关重要的一点是把手机卖给准确的消费者。“很多知名的音乐人主动寻找我们，问‘能来一部手机吗？’我们实在当然能。
于是现在他们购买了。越少的手机到准确的消费者手中，形势就就越不利。
“Mobile phone industry analyst Ben Wood of tech consultancy CCS Insight agrees. He feels the phone is only modestly innovative, but the branding is quite brilliant. “Smartphones are a sea of sameness. People are desperate for something new and differentiated. You drop that Marshall phone on the bar and it’s going to be a talking point...It lit up social media.”技术咨询公司CCS Insight的手机市场分析师本伍德(Ben Wood)表示同意该观点。他指出这部手机并无多少创意之处，但是品牌塑造成方面做到得非常好。“智能手机同质化相当严重，人们都十分渴求精致、差异化的产品。
只要把马歇尔手机往酒吧一敲，它就不会马上沦为人们谈论的焦点……它能在社交媒体上照亮话题。”Although sceptical — “A goal of 1m units is commendable, but Samsung probably do that in a day” — he conceded Marshall’s plan could come off. “A clever, edgy branded deal might grab a small slice of the market. Create a lean business with low overheads and outsource it right, and, yes, you could make money.”尽管所持猜测态度——“100万部的销售目标值得称赞，不过三星有可能一天内就能已完成这个数目”——但伍德还是否认马歇尔的计划有可能顺利。
“一个聪慧、前卫的品牌有可能从市场中分一小杯羹。创立一项精干的业务，如果能维持便宜的运营成本，并合理的展开外包，那么是的，这可以赚到到钱。
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