库伊：苹果冉冉上升的救火新星

As Chief Executive Tim Cook shifts executive responsibilities around at Apple Inc., Eddy Cue is emerging as one of the biggest beneficiaries.

苹果(Apple Inc.)首席执行长库克(Tim Cook)调整公司内部高管职责的行动让库伊(Eddy Cue)成为最大的受益者之一。

A member of Apple's old guard, the 23-year company veteran rose through the ranks as co-founder Steve Jobs's right-hand man for new areas like e-commerce and media. But at a company dominated by hardware and operating systems, Mr. Cue was on the periphery and known largely for cajoling media companies to sign on to Apple's iTunes service.

库伊是苹果元老，效力苹果已有23年，此前他一步步获得提升，并成为公司联合创始人乔布斯(Steve Jobs)的左膀右臂，负责电子商务和媒体等新业务。但在这样一个硬件和操作系统占主导地位的公司，库伊并非核心人物，人们对他的了解主要限于他说服媒体公司支持苹果的iTunes服务。

Now the affable executive, a 48-year-old Miami native of Cuban descent, has become a prime architect of Apple's software strategy and one of the most important product voices at a company where no clear chief product visionary has emerged since Mr. Jobs's death last year.

库伊现年48岁，古巴裔，出生在迈阿密，和蔼可亲的他如今已成为苹果软件战略的主要设计师，也是苹果最重要的产品高管之一。自去年乔布斯去世以来，苹果一直没有一个表现出远见卓识的产品战略家。

As senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, Mr. Cue has lately managed crises related to Apple's mobile maps and iCloud and iMessage outages. He has taken on iBooks and the iAd advertising service and oversees Apple's App Store, which has more than 700,000 apps. He urged Mr. Cook and others that Apple should develop a smaller iPad based on his own usage of a seven-inch tablet, which Mr. Jobs previously denounced.

作为互联网软件及服务高级副总裁，库伊最近平息了苹果手机地图及iCloud和iMessage问题而引发的危机。他接掌了iBooks和iAd广告服务，负责苹果有着逾70万个应用的App Store。他根据自己使用七英寸平板电脑的经验，向库克和其他人竭力主张苹果应该开发一款屏幕尺寸更小的iPad。乔布斯此前曾强烈反对开发小尺寸平板电脑。

When iPhone software chief Scott Forstall was ousted last month, Mr. Cue inherited two of Apple's newest Internet services: Maps and the voice-activated assistant Siri.

iPhone软件负责人福斯托尔(Scott Forstall)上个月被迫离职后，库伊接手了苹果两项最新的互联网服务：地图和语音助手Siri。

The ascent solidifies Mr. Cue's role as one of the chief deputies to Mr. Cook, who has surrounded himself with several close advisors without elevating one to a clear number two. Mr. Cue has the loyalty and admiration of many longtime employees, who respect that he was with Apple during the dark days before Mr. Jobs began his turnaround of the company in the late 1990s.

受委重任有助于巩固库伊作为库克左膀右臂的地位。库克有数位亲密顾问，但没有明确把任何一位提升至二把手的位置。库伊赢得了很多老员工的忠诚和称赞。老员工都很尊重他，因为在上世纪90年代末乔布斯开始扭转公司局面前的黑暗时期，库伊一直效力于苹果。

Mr. Cue is also a champion of the Apple way: Entering new areas patiently and slowly and preaching the need to put the customer first. To negotiating partners, he epitomizes the company's penchant for secrecy with a poker face that media companies scramble to decipher.

库克还大力推行所谓的“苹果之道：耐心而缓慢地进入新的领域，倡导客户至上的原则。对与公司进行谈判的合作伙伴而言，他无异于苹果秘密风格的典型代表，常常面无表情，令媒体公司迫不及待地想要一探究竟。

That patient approach faces new pressure. Apple's dominance in smartphones and tablets is under threat as competitors quickly catch up.

这样的耐心作风如今面临着新的压力。随着竞争对手迅速赶超上来，苹果在智能手机和平板电脑领域的主导地位受到威胁。

Investors are questioning how much longer Apple can maintain its growth and its unrivaled status as a technology trendsetter.

投资者开始质疑，苹果的增长以及在引领科技潮流方面无与伦比的地位还能保持多久。

Amid the shift, Mr. Cue's online businesses have become more strategic as consumers select devices based more on what they can do. ITunes, the largest business Mr. Cue oversees, brought in $2.1 billion in Apple's most recent quarter, or 5.8% of overall revenue.

随着消费者更多地根据产品功能来选择产品，经过人事调整后，库伊主管的在线业务对苹果而言更具战略重要性了。库伊负责的最大一块业务iTunes在刚刚过去的这个季度实现收入21亿美元，占苹果总收入的5.8%。

Mr. Cue 'is in charge of all the most important services if Apple wants to grow,' said Anthony Soohoo, a former CBS Corp. media executive who negotiated with Mr. Cue and now runs a San Francisco-based media-app company Rumpus Inc.

曾与库伊进行过谈判的前哥伦比亚广播公司(CBS Corp.)媒体高管苏霍(Anthony Soohoo)说，苹果若想实现增长，库伊就需要负责所有最重要的服务。他目前在旧金山经营着媒体应用程序公司Rumpus Inc.。

Mr. Cue couldn't be reached for comment and Apple didn't make him available for an interview.

记者无法联系到库伊置评。苹果没有安排他接受记者采访。

Mr. Cue, who lives in Los Altos, Calif., with his wife, cuts a low profile and avoids the Silicon Valley social scene. He isn't the showman Mr. Jobs was or that marketing chief Phil Schiller has become; indeed, despite coaching, Mr. Cue has often confided to colleagues that he's uncomfortable on stage. And he sometimes looks it, glancing down at prompters and pausing more than other slick Apple presenters.

库伊目前与太太住在加州洛斯阿尔托斯。他行事低调，很少出入硅谷社交常与乔布斯以及后来变得喜欢抛头露面的营销负责人席勒(Phil Schiller)不同，他不是个爱出风头的人。事实上，尽管库伊时不时地要训导别人，但他却常常向同事承认自己在台上感到不自在。他有时看起来也确实如此，低头看提词器，比那些在作报告时出口成章的苹果高管有更多的停顿。

Like Mr. Jobs, he is more a strategist and tactician than manager, say people who have worked closely with him, staying focused on a few top priorities and clearing the next product launch.

据那些在工作上与库伊关系密切的人说，和乔布斯一样，库伊与其说是一位经理人，不如说更像一位战略家和战术家。他总是把工作重心放到少数几件重要事情上，为下一个产品的推出扫清障碍。

After giving employees lots of leeway, Mr. Cue will often swoop in to get things done himself, they say, paying little attention to smaller projects or personnel matters.

这些人说，在给下属很多自主权之后，库伊往往会“趁虚而入，亲自把事情做好。他很少关注规模较小的项目或人事问题。

This week, Mr. Cue faces a test of how well Apple can keep up in online services with the launch of a new desktop version of iTunes, which is expected as soon as Thursday.

本周，库伊将面临的一项考验是，在苹果推出新桌面版iTunes之际，该公司的在线服务能否同步跟上。这一新版iTunes预计最快于周四推出。

The new iTunes has been delayed a month by engineering issues that required parts to be rebuilt, according to people who have seen it.

据知情人士透露，由于工程问题需要部分软件重新编写，新版iTunes的推出时间已经推迟了一个月。

The delay comes at a challenging time for Apple. ITunes was a pioneer in digital media, and its share of the paid music download business stood at 64% in the second quarter.

iTunes延期推出正值苹果遭遇挑战之际。iTunes是数字媒体领域的先锋，今年二季度其在付费音乐下载领域占据的市场份额高达64%。

But it now faces competition from rivals like Pandora P -2.90% Media Inc. and Spotify Ltd., which enables users to subscribe to their services and stream music without downloading it. In contrast, iTunes requires people to download media files, although it streams video content to Apple TV.

但iTunes现在面临Pandora Media Inc.和Spotify Ltd.等对手的竞争。后者允许用户订阅他们的服务，并以流媒体形式在线欣赏而无需下载。相比之下，iTunes要求用户下载媒体文件，虽然它也以流媒体格式向Apple TV提供视频内容。

Mr. Cue is still proceeding cautiously with streaming, preaching his trademark patient approach. The new version of iTunes, dubbed iTunes 11, is more closely integrated with iCloud and resembles the mobile version.

库伊仍然在谨慎推进流媒体业务，并到处宣扬他那标志性的耐心理论。新版iTunes（即iTunes 11）同iCloud的结合更加紧密，同移动版iTunes相似。

It will allow people to stream music, movies and TV shows they have purchased from Apple from one Apple device to another via the iCloud syncing service without downloading them again. Apple has only offered the function for music in the past through iTunes Match. But computer, tablet and phone users will still have to download the file initially and pay a la carte.

新版iTunes允许用户通过iCloud同步服务在一台苹果设备上以流媒体格式直接欣赏在另一台苹果设备上购买的音乐、电影和电视节目，无需再次下载。苹果此前只是通过iTunes Match服务提供此项功能，且仅限用户购买的音乐。但计算机、平板电脑和手机用户一开始还得下载文件，并分别付费。

Russ Crupnick, senior vice president of industry analysis for NPD, said the competition isn't hurting Apple yet because the iTunes user base is so big. But 'streaming starts to pose a greater risk to iTunes' over time, as it becomes more ubiquitous and convenient in places like cars, he said.

研究机构NPD负责行业分析的高级副总裁克拉珀尼克(Russ Crupnick)说，这场竞争目前还未伤及苹果，因为iTunes的用户群太大。但随着时间的推移，流媒体将会对iTunes构成越来越大的威胁，因为在车内等场合流媒体更加普及且方便。

Mr. Cue doesn't seem fazed by the challenges ahead and has seemed upbeat about the future, said people who have spoken to him recently.

据最近和库伊沟通过的人说，未来的挑战并没有让库伊慌乱，看上去他对未来仍感到乐观。

Employees single him out as the rare senior Apple manager who likes to make small talk and discuss sports. (Mr. Cue is a Duke University basketball fanatic, and his office is full of photos of the team.)

下属认为库伊非常特别，是苹果高管中罕见的一位喜欢闲聊并讨论体育赛事的人（库伊是杜克大学篮球队的铁杆粉丝，他的办公室里摆满了这只球队的照片）。

Employees appreciate that he doesn't shy from acknowledging mistakes head-on by saying things like 'We really f─ed up,' said people who know him.

据知情人士透露，下属欣赏库伊的一点是，他从不避讳当面承认错误。他常会说“我们真的搞砸了之类的话。

Mr. Cue gained credibility at Apple by fixing some of the company's flops, including the MobileMe data syncing service. He re-launched the failed service as iCloud in 2011.

由于成功地令苹果公司内部一些原本失败的项目起死回生，库伊因此赢得了赞誉，这其中包括MobileMe数据同步服务。2011年，库伊重新推出了这项服务，并改名为iCloud。

The iCloud launch required major investment in data center technologies outside Apple's expertise, and former employees recall development was rocky.

推出iCloud需要对数据中心技术投入大笔资金，而这些技术并非苹果的专长。一些前雇员回忆说，研发过程并非一路坦途。

But Mr. Cue stayed calm and told employees he had confidence in them, one of those people said. Apple said iCloud now has more than 200 million users, roughly half the size of iTunes.

他们中的一人说，但库伊却保持着冷静，他告诉员工自己对他们有信心。苹果说iCloud目前用户数量超过2亿，大致是iTunes的一半。