This is my last column for The Wall Street Journal, after 22 years of reviewing consumer technology products here.
为《华尔街日报》评测科技类消费品22年后,这是我的最后一篇专栏文章。
So I thought I'd talk about the dozen personal-technology products I reviewed that were most influential over the past two decades. Obviously, narrowing so many products in the most dynamic of modern industries down to 12 is a subjective exercise and others will disagree.
所以我想来谈谈过去20年我评测过的12个最具影响力的个人科技产品。很显然,从这个最富活力的现代产业所生产的五花八门的产品中挑选出12个,这是个很主观的看法,别人也许会有不同意见。
Though most were hits, a couple weren't blockbusters, financially, and one was an outright flop. Instead, I used as my criteria two main things.
虽然大多数产品都一窜而红,但有几个却叫好不叫座,有一个更是一败涂地。在这里,我来讲讲我的两个标准。
First, the products had to improve ease of use and add value for average consumers. That was the guiding principle I laid down in the first sentence of my first column, in 1991: 'Personal computers are just too hard to use, and it's not your fault.'
首先,产品要能提高易用性,能为普通消费者增添价值。这也正是我1991年第一篇专栏文章中头一句话所提出的指导原则:个人电脑太难用了,这不是你们的错。
Second, I chose these 12 because each changed the course of digital history by influencing the products and services that followed, or by changing the way people lived and worked. In some cases, the impact of these mass-market products is still unfolding. All of these products had predecessors, but they managed to take their categories to a new level.
其次,我之所以选择这12个产品,是因为所有这些产品都改变了数码历史的进程,它们要么影响了后来追随而至的产品和服务,要么改变了人们的生活和工作方式。在某些情况下,这些大众产品仍在释放影响力。所有这些产品都有“前辈”,但它们做到了将其所属类别提升至一个新高度。
Some readers will complain that Apple is overrepresented. My answer: Apple introduced more influential, breakthrough products for average consumers than any other company over the years of this column.
一些读者可能会抱怨说,苹果(Apple)产品出现的频率过高。对此我的解释是,在我撰写本专栏的这些年里,相比其他任何一家公司,苹果面向普通消费者推出了更多具有影响力和突破性的产品。