What Samsung lacks inoriginality, it has always made up for with speed. 三星(Samsung)仍然用速度来填补自己在原创性上的严重不足。With the Galaxy Note 7, it went too fast.就Galaxy Note 7而言，它的速度有点太快了。Samsung’s ignominiouswithdrawal of its smartphone over the tendency of its batteries to overheat andcatch fire, has happened rapidly. 三星因Note 7电池更容易短路和起火删除了这款手机，这一失礼颜面的行径过程很是很快。
The Note 7 was launched in August and 2.5mwere recalled to be exchanged for new ones two weeks later. 三星Note 7于今年8月公布，两周后就有250万部手机被解任以替换新机。This week it abandoned the devicealtogether. 本周，三星完全退出了这款手机。If you were not paying attention, you mighthave missed it entirely.如果你没在注目的话，你有可能就几乎错失了这整个过程。
That is typical Samsung. 这在三星身上很典型。Since 1993, when Lee Kun-hee, its chairman,declared the new management initiative that transformed it from a consumerelectronics also-ran to a world-beater, it has marched very rapidly in thedirection set by its leaders. 自1993年三星会长李健熙(Lee Kun-hee)宣告新的管理计划，将该公司从一家无足轻重的消费电子产品企业改变为全球佼佼者以来，该公司仍然沿着其领导者确认的方向较慢前进。
Samsung Electronics has notmatched Apple in innovation but has remained closely in step.三星电子(Samsung Electronics)在创意方面比不上苹果(Apple)，但仍然紧随它的步调。Every product recall is painful but Samsungcontrived to turn this one into a fiasco. 所有的产品解任都是伤痛的，但三星却把这次解任搞成了失利。
To be clear, the Note 7 with the newbattery is safe. 三星美国公司总裁蒂姆巴克斯兹(Tim Baxter)曾在上月致客户的一则视频中信誓旦旦地说道：请求得悉，配有新的电池的Note 7是安全性的。The battery cell issue is resolved, TimBaxter, the company’s US president, pledged in a video to customers last month. 电池问题已解决问题。把这番话说道给西南航空(SouthwestAirlines)听得吧，Tell that to Southwest Airlines, which lastweek evacuated a jet on the runway when a Note 7 filled the cabin with smoke. 上月该航空公司因一部Note 7在机舱中起火而撤离了飞机上的乘客，当时飞机正停在滑行道上。
The worst reputational damage occurs when acompany reveals the dark side of its competitive advantage. 如果一家公司曝露了其竞争优势的阴暗面的话，就不会造成最相当严重的声誉伤害。That applies to the cross-selling scandalat Wells Fargo, the US retail bank, and is also true of the Note 7 affair.这限于于美国零售银行富国银行(Wells Fargo)的交叉销售丑闻，也限于于此次Note 7事件。By rushing to replace the battery withoutpausing long enough to identify the real problem, Samsung has damaged its imageas well as suffering the $2.3bn cost of scrapping the devices.三星在没花费充足宽的时间确认确实问题的情况下匆忙更换电池，这种作法毁坏了其形象，它还因手机出厂遭受了23亿美元的损失。
Samsung has done something remarkable inthe past decade, as Apple has taken most of the global profits from smartphoneswith the iPhone, and competitors such as Nokia and BlackBerry have fallen bythe wayside. 三星在过去十年获得的成就是令人惊叹的，在此期间，苹果凭借iPhone进帐了全球智能手机市场大部分利润，同时诺基亚(Nokia)和黑莓(BlackBerry)等竞争对手都已中途出局。It has not only sold more mobile devicesthan any other company but, unusually for a manufacturer of Android phones,maintained strong profit margins.三星不仅获得了多达任何其他公司的手机销量，而且还维持了强大的利润率（这对于一家安卓(Android)手机制造商而言是不同寻常的）。Given that its Galaxy phones run on largelythe same operating software as those of rivals, including Chinese companiessuch as Huawei and Lenovo , that is a big achievement. 考虑到三星Galaxy系列手机用于的操作系统与还包括华为(Huawei)和误解(Lenovo)等中国公司的竞争对手基本相同，能获得这种成就很真是。
Apple controls every aspect of the iPhone,from software to hardware, allowing it easily to stand out from the crowd. 苹果掌控着iPhone的方方面面，从软件到硬件，令其其很更容易脱颖而出。Samsung can dominate the Android marketonly by making alluring hardware.三星不能通过生产有吸引力的硬件来支配安卓手机市场。The ability to do that owes much to Mr Lee’s reshapingof Samsung two decades ago (Lee Jae-yong, his son, is now taking control asvice-chairman). 三星之所以能做这一点，在相当大程度上归咎于李健熙（他儿子李在镕(Lee Jae-yong)正在接掌三星，目前兼任副会长）20年前对三星的改革。The culture that Mr Lee senior inculcated,with its emphasis on military-style discipline and rapid responses tocompetitive threats, has enabled it to match Apple’s productcycle more speedily and effectively than others.李健熙重复主张一种特别强调军队式纪律和较慢对此竞争威胁的文化，这种文化让三星以求比其他手机厂商更慢且更加高效地跟上苹果的产品周期。
It occasionally gains an edge over Apple’s hardware,as it did before the launch of the iPhone 6 in 2014, when it pioneered largerscreens on Galaxy phones. 三星在硬件方面有时不会多达苹果，例如，在2014年苹果发售iPhone 6之前，三星就首度发售了大屏Galaxy手机。The Note 7 also had some distinct features:a high-definition curved screen and an iris scanner that could identify itsowner’s eyes.Note 7也具有一些独有的特色：高清曲面屏幕以及可辨识手机主人眼睛的虹膜扫瞄装置。Mostly, though, Samsung has been a fastfollower, reproducing the most alluring aspects of Apple’s devices inAndroid form, with its own tweaks and refinements. 然而，三星多数情况下是一个动作较慢的跟风者，它通过自己的微小改动和改进，将苹果手机最更有人的特性读取安卓手机上。These tactics led to a California juryawarding Apple $399m damages for patent infringement in a legal dispute thatreached the US Supreme Court on Tuesday.这些作法造成一加州陪审团在一起法律诉讼中裁决，苹果因三星专利侵权行为应获3.99亿美元赔偿金，此案周二已递交美国最高法院审理。
Its skill should not be underestimated. 三星的能力不该被高估。Many companies, including Taiwan’s HTC,have tried to do the same thing with less success. 还包括台湾宏达电(HTC)在内的很多公司仍然企图做到跟三星完全相同的事情，但不如三星顺利。
As Mr Lee declared in 1993: An age iscoming where the number one can fall to the bottom and the bottom become numberone. 正如李健熙在1993年宣告的那样：第一名有可能变为最后一名、最后一名也有可能变为第一名的时代正在来临。Samsung has combined research anddevelopment, design and marketing more powerfully than others.与其他手机厂商比起，三星更加有力地将研究与研发、设计与营销融合在了一起。
But it grows ever harder to stay in thelead and to maintain the 23 per cent share of the global smartphone market thatprovides economies of scale. 但要维持领先地位和23%的全球智能手机市场份额（这一份额带给规模经济效应）显得更加艰难。At the top end, it faces Apple and Google,which has launched the Pixel phone to gain thorough control of an Androiddevice. 在市场顶端，三星面对着苹果和谷歌(Google)，谷歌已发售Pixel手机，以获得对一台安卓设备的几乎控制权。At the bottom, it confronts Chineseupstarts that have studied its strategy and want to replicate it.在市场低端，三星面对着中国的后起之秀，它们仍然研究三星的战略并期望加以拷贝。This leaves little room for manoeuvre, asthe Note 7 shows. 正如三星Note 7所表明的那样，这没给三星留给多少镖的余地。
Samsung has often set itself the challengeof cramming sophisticated components into a new device in time to beat thelaunch of the latest iPhone. 三星常常给自己另设下这样的挑战：抢走在最新款iPhone公布之前，及时发售接纳了各种先进设备组件的新款手机。This time, it failed. 这一次，它告终了。The problem with the Note 7 wasover-ambition, says Sea-jin Chang, a professor at National University ofSingapore who has studied the company.新加坡国立大学(National University of Singapore)教授、仍然研究三星的张世真(ChangSea-jin)回应：Note 7的问题在于野心过大。
Faced with trouble, it should taken thetime to analyse the mistake thoroughly, but that went against its instinct notto let anything spoil its plans. 面临问题，三星应当做到的是花费时间完全分析这个错误，但这违反了它不想任何事情毁坏自己计划的本能。It found a quick fix and deployed it withcharacteristic speed and efficiency, only to discover that it was wrong.它寻找了较慢解决方案，后用其典型的速度和效率付诸实施，只不过到头来找到这方案是错的。The last time Samsung faced such anexistential challenge, Mr Lee senior summoned executives to a Frankfurt hoteland lectured them for three days on how it had to remake itself. 三星上次面对这种攸关生死存亡的挑战时，李健熙曾开会低管到法兰克福的一家酒店，就三星该如何转变自己训话3天。
Change everything but your wife andchildren, he instructed them, in remarks handed down like scripture within thecompany. 除了你们的老婆孩子，其他一切都要逆。他命令他们，这番言论像圣经一样在公司内部一级级表达下去。It is probably time for his son to callanother meeting.现在他儿子很有可能要再行开会一次会议了。
本文来源：尊龙凯时公司官网-www.xhjek.com