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Apple’s growth engine has now shifted unmistakably to China.
现在，苹果(Apple)的增长引擎已经明白无误地转移到了中国。
The company said on Monday that quarterly iPhone sales in greater China, which includes mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, had surpassed those in Apple’s home market, the United States, for the first time.
公司周一宣布，iPhone在包括中国大陆、香港和台湾在内的大中华区的季度销售额已经超过了苹果在美国国内市场的成绩。这是历史上第一次。
While Apple did not disclose specific numbers, the performance powered the company’s revenue, with sales in greater China rising 71 percent to $16.8 billion in the fiscal second quarter compared with the same period last year. Revenue from greater China also exceeded that from Europe for the first time.
虽然苹果并未透露具体数字，但这一表现提升了公司的营收数据。大中华区第二财季的销售额升至168亿美元（约合1040亿元人民币），同比上扬71%。来自大中华区的营收还首次超过了欧洲市场。
The China results punctuated another strong quarter for Apple. In total, revenue climbed 27 percent to $58 billion, up from $45.6 billion last year, the company said in its earnings report. Profit was $13.6 billion, up from $10.2 billion a year ago.
中国的业绩标志着苹果又有了一个表现强劲的季度。公司在财报中称，全球市场而言，总营收同比增加27%，由去年的456亿美元增至580亿美元。利润则由一年前的102亿美元增至136亿美元。
“Everything you look at in China was extremely good,” Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, told analysts in the company’s earnings call. “We’re really proud of the results there and continue to invest in the country.”
“在中国看到的一切都非常好，”苹果首席执行官蒂莫西·D·库克(Timothy D. Cook)在公司的财报电话会议中告诉各位分析师。“我们对那里的业绩深感自豪，并且将继续在中国进行投资。”
Apple has long laid the groundwork to reap big sales in China, and revenue growth from the region has steadily gained momentum. The company in late 2013 struck an important deal to sell iPhones through China Mobile, the world’s largest phone carrier. Apple is also expanding its operations in the region, with 21 retail stores and plans to increase that number to 40 by mid-2016.
苹果很早以前就为在中国取得巨大销售额奠定了基础，而这一地区的收益也在呈稳步提升的趋势。2013年末，苹果达成了一项重要协议，从而能够通过世界上最大的手机运营商中国移动来销售iPhone。苹果还在扩大它在该地区的业务规模。目前它在大中华区拥有21家零售店，计划到2016年年中增加到40家。
Add to all that the fact that the Chinese New Year holiday, typically a big retail season, was in February. The latest iPhones also have much bigger screens than past models, another feature that has been especially popular in China.
此外，春节假期通常是大型零售季，而它今年的时间是在2月。最新款的iPhone还拥有比旧款大很多的屏幕，这个特点在中国市场上备受欢迎。
Jan Dawson, an independent technology analyst for Jackdaw Research, said Apple’s performance in China highlighted its advantages against other American technology companies.
穴鸟研究公司(Jackdaw Research)的独立科技分析师简·道森(Jan Dawson)认为，苹果在中国的表现突显了它与其他美国科技公司相比的优势所在。
“It’s hugely important because it shows that Apple continues to be the only major U.S. tech company that is really succeeding in China, in contrast to Google, Microsoft and Amazon,” Mr. Dawson said.
“这非常重要，因为它表明与谷歌(Google)、微软(Microsoft)和亚马逊(Amazon)相比，苹果依然是唯一真正在中国取得成功的大型美国科技企业，”道森说。
Over all, Apple sold 61.2 million iPhones in the quarter, beating analysts’ estimates of roughly 60 million phones. That also far exceeded the 43.7 million iPhones that Apple sold in the period a year ago. Analysts had anticipated that iPhone sales would increase sharply, largely because of the company’s growing presence in greater China. Apple also said it was seeing a higher rate of people switching to iPhones from Android smartphones.
总的来看，这一季度苹果的iPhone销量共计6120万部，超过了分析师预估的6000万部左右的数据，并且远超苹果去年同期取得的4370万部的销量。分析师此前就已预计，主要由于苹果在大中华区日益增加的影响力，iPhone的销售将大幅提升。苹果还表示，人们从Android智能手机转而使用iPhone的速度在加快。
Sales of Apple’s iPad declined for the fifth quarter in a row, however. The company sold 12.6 million iPads, compared with 16.4 million tablets a year ago. Over the last year, Apple’s tablet sales have steadily shrunk, partly because people do not upgrade those devices as frequently as they do smartphones. In addition, as smartphone screen sizes increase, some consumers question whether they need both a tablet and a phone.
不过，苹果iPad的销售连续第五个季度下跌。公司在这一季度里共售出1260万台iPad，而一年前为1640万台。过去一年中，苹果平板的销售状况稳步下跌，其部分原因是人们对这类设备更新换代的频率不像智能手机那么高。除此之外，随着智能手机屏幕尺寸的加大，有些消费者还会怀疑自己是否需要同时拥有平板电脑和智能手机。
In an interview, Luca Maestri, Apple’s chief financial officer, said the company was nonetheless happy with the iPad’s performance because the tablet continued to top customer satisfaction ratings.
苹果首席财务官卢卡·马埃斯特里(Luca Maestri)接受采访时表示，尽管如此，公司仍对iPad的表现感到满意，因为这款平板产品在消费者满意度排名中持续位居首位。
Apple also sold 4.6 million Mac computers in the quarter, up from 4.1 million a year ago. Mr. Cook said Mac sales in China rose 31 percent from a year ago.
苹果公司在这一季度还卖出460万台Mac电脑，而去年同期的销量为410万台。库克表示，Mac在中国的销售额同比增长31%。
Apple reported earnings after releasing its Apple Watch, which began shipping to customers in nine countries on Friday. On the earnings call, Mr. Cook said that consumer demand was exceeding initial supply, but that he expected Apple to be able to offer the watch in additional countries by late June.
苹果此次公布财报正好在推出Apple Watch之后。上周五，苹果开始向九个国家的消费者出货。库克在财报电话会议上表示，消费者对Apple Watch的需求超过了初期的供应量，但他认为苹果能够在6月底前为更多国家提供这款腕表产品。
Mr. Cook said Apple was especially happy with the progress in software applications available for the Apple Watch. The App Store now has more than 3,500 apps compatible with the watch, much higher than the 500 apps initially available for the iPhone when the App Store opened in 2008.
库克表示，公司对可供Apple Watch使用的软件应用的研发进展感到特别满意。App Store现在有逾3500个适合这款手表使用的应用，远远超过2008年推出App Store时最初适用于iPhone的应用的数量——500个。
“We couldn’t be happier about how things are going,” Mr. Cook said about apps for the watch, adding that customer response so far seemed to be “100 percent positive.”
“我们对事情的进展感到再满意不过，”库克在提到手表应用时说。他还表示，到目前为止消费者的反应似乎是“100%正面的”。
Analysts’ expectations for the watch are modest compared to Apple’s other blockbuster products. Toni Sacconaghi, a financial analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein, estimates that Apple will sell 7.5 million watches in the second half of Apple’s fiscal year, a much smaller number than the tens of millions of iPhones that sell each quarter.
与苹果其他的主打产品相比，分析人士对这款腕表的期望值不高。桑福德·伯恩斯坦公司(Sanford C. Bernstein)的金融分析师托尼·萨克纳吉(Toni Sacconaghi)预测，苹果在本财年下半年的手表销量将为750万块，远不及iPhone每季度上千万的销量。
The watch is Apple’s first brand-new hardware product under Mr. Cook, who took the reins in 2011, and Mr. Sacconaghi said investors would increasingly be looking at whether the wearable device would become Apple’s next big business.
这款腕表是库克2011年掌管苹果以来公司推出的第一款全新硬件产品。萨科纳吉表示，投资者会愈发关注这款可穿戴设备是否会成为苹果的下一个热门产品。
“The iPhone is not going to grow this rate forever in China or globally,” he said. “What’s next, given that Mac is small and iPad is declining?”
“在中国或全球市场上，iPhone的销售不会永远以这个速度增长，”他说。“鉴于Mac销售额较少，而iPad销售额不断下降，下一款热销产品会是什么呢？”
It is unlikely that Apple will share sales figures for the watch soon. In a previous earnings call, Mr. Cook said the company would report watch sales in a group with other products, rather than breaking it out into a separate category, to obscure its performance against competitors.
苹果很可能不会很快公布Apple Watch的销售数据。在之前的一次财报电话会议上，库克表示，公司会公布手表和其他几款产品的联合销售数据，但不会对它进行单独公布，从而使之不能与竞争对手的市场表现进行比较。
Apple on Monday also said it increased its capital return program by 50 percent, to $200 billion in cash by the end of March 2017. Apple is increasing its share repurchases to $140 billion from $90 billion, and is also raising its dividend to shareholders. The company’s cash and securities pile stood at $193.5 billion as of the end of the quarter.
苹果公司在周一还表示，公司把资本返还计划的规模扩大了50%，将在2017年3月底前将向投资者返还2000亿美元。苹果计划将股票回购规模由900亿美元增至1400亿美元，还会增加向股东发放的红利。截至上季度末，苹果手中握有1935亿美元的现金和证券。
