电子产品更新换代之烦恼

Although his 1-year-old smartphone still works perfectly, Li Jijia already feels the need to replace it.

尽管用了一年的智能手机完好无损，李继嘉（音译）已经动了想换新手机的念头。

“It has been a year. There are many better ones available now,” said the 21-year-old education major at Central China Normal University. “It’s time to upgrade my phone.”

“已经用了一年了，市面上出了很多更强大的手机。”就读于华中师范大学教育学专业、21岁的李继嘉说：“是时候换新手机了”。

Li’s impatience is shared by many. Shortly after the season when new gadgets are released, many consumers feel the urge to upgrade their electronic devices, even though the ones they have still work just fine.

很多人都像李继嘉一样急切。新品发布季刚过，很多顾客便迫不及待地要更新他们的电子设备，即便旧的仍能正常使用。

As consumers obsess over Apple’s newly released products and debate whether the Google tablet is better than the new Amazon Kindle, it might be time to take a step back and ask: “Do we really need the latest upgrades?”

当顾客们正痴迷于苹果的新产品，热议着谷歌平板电脑和亚马逊Kindle阅读器哪个更好时，或许我们是时候该退一步好好想想了：“我们真的需要这些最新的电子产品吗？”

New psychology

新一轮的心理战

According to Donald Norman, American author of the book The Design of Everyday Things, “planned obsolescence” is the trick behind the upgrading culture of today’s consumer electronics industry.

《设计每天的生活》一书的作者、美国作家唐纳德•诺曼认为，隐藏在当今电子行业不断更新换代文化背后的是“计划性报废”的把戏。

The New York Times cited Norman last month, saying that electronics manufactures strategically release new upgrades periodically, both for hardware and software, so that customers on every level feel the need to buy the newest version.

上个月《纽约时报》引用诺曼的话说，电子厂商们有计划地定期发布最新的软硬件升级产品，这样一来每个层次的顾客都觉得有必要去购买最新版本。

“This is an old-time trick– they’re not inventing anything new,” he said.

诺曼表示：“这还是过去的旧把戏——没什么新点子。”

Thomas Wensma, a Dutch designer, despises the “planned obsolescence” of companies, as recently reported by UK-based The Guardian.

最近英国《卫报》有报道称，来自荷兰的设计师托马斯•文斯玛十分鄙视许多公司采取的“计划性淘汰”策略。

Wensma said this is a wasteful system through which companies – many of them producing personal electronics – release shoddy products simply because “they know that, in six months or a year, they’ll put out a new one”.

文斯玛说这是一种相当浪费资源的机制。在这样的机制中，包括许多个人电子产品生产商在内的企业们之所以推出劣质货，是因为“他们清楚，一年半载之后，会有新品推出。”

But the new psychology of consumers is part of this system, as Wensma conceded to the newspaper: “We now want something new, something pretty, the next shiny thing.”

而如今消费者心理的改变也成为该机制的一部分，文斯玛向英国《卫报》透露说：“现在我们都喜欢新奇炫的东西。”

Huge profits

暴利

“It’s to the detriment of the consumer and the environment,” as the New York Times quoted Norman. “But perhaps to the betterment of the stockholder.”

“这对消费者和环境来说是种伤害”《纽约时报》援引诺曼的话说：“但对股东们而言却是好事一件。”

In its most recent fiscal year, Apple’s profit margin was more than 21 percent, reported the Los Angeles Times. At Hewlett-Packard, the world’s biggest PC manufacturer, it was only 7 percent.

据《洛杉矶时报》报道称，苹果公司最新年度财务报告显示，其利润率超过21%。而作为全球最大的个人电脑制造商，惠普公司的利润率仅为7%。

“Steven Jobs pushed the principle of ‘planned obsolescence’ to new heights,” the newspaper commented on the company’s profits and marketing strategy. “Apple’s annual upgrades of its products generate sales of millions of units as owners of one year’s MacBook or iPhone line up to buy the newest version, even when the changes are incremental.”

“史蒂夫•乔布斯将‘计划性淘汰’推向了一个新高度。”《洛杉矶时报》在评论苹果公司的利润与营销战略时如是说道：“用户们放弃了刚购入一年的苹果笔记本电脑Macbook或iPhone，再次排起长龙去购买最新产品，这样一来苹果公司每年的产品升级都带来了数百万的销量，尽管这些产品升级有时只是量变而非质变。”

Peer pressure

朋友圈的压力

As to Li Jijia, the need for upgrading his smartphone comes mainly from friends and classmates. When the majority of friends are switching to the latest devices, he worries about feeling left out.

对于李继嘉来说，换手机的需求主要来源于朋友和同学的压力。因为大部分朋友都换了新的，他担心自己落伍。

“Some apps and games require better hardware to run,” said Li. “If you don’t join in, you lose part of the connection to your friends.”

“有些应用和游戏需要更好的硬件才能运行，”李继嘉说：“如果你脱离组织，就会跟朋友们格格不入。”