Apple and Samsungs purported desire to create a smart watch to pair with their smartphones seems to be an incredibly dumb idea. The two, usually wise, companies would be making a grave mistake entering the low-margin cellular accessory market, where the competition is fierce and the barriers to entry are incredibly low. Furthermore, the utility of such a device seems questionable, likely appealing to a limited subset of consumers of unfashionable geeks and pudgy weekend warriors.坊间谣传苹果公司（Apple）和三星公司（Samsung）要打造出一个“智能”手表来给定他们自己的智能手机。这个点子或许是个傻到家的主意。

这两家一贯明智的公司如果转入较低利润率的手机配件市场，那将是一个不能挽救的错误。因为这个市场竞争极为白热化，同时转入门槛较低得胆怯。再者，这个新的玩意儿的实用性也让人猜测，它很有可能只不会更有一小部分不入流的技术极客和那些胖乎乎的周末健美族。Rumors that Apple (AAPL) is developing a watch to pair with its iPhone have been swirling around for a while now. The word on the street in Silicon Valley is that the company has about 100 designers working on the product. Nevertheless, there has been little in the way of substantive proof to back up the assertions—no leaked photos, just questionable Photoshop mockups.苹果正在研发一款和iPhone配上的手表，这个传言早已流传了好一段时间。

硅谷的街头巷议还传言说道，苹果现在投放了100多位设计师研发这个产品。不过，还没什么可信的证据反对这个传言——没有看见谍照，只有一些用Photoshop加工过的伪照。But that apparently isnt stopping Samsung, Apples biggest rival in the handset market, from developing a smartwatch of its own to counter the phantom Apple product. Lee Young Hee, Samsungs chief executive, told Bloomberg News in an interview that his company has been, preparing the watch product for so long, and that Samsung was, working very hard to get ready for it.但很似乎，这种情况并没制止苹果在手机市场的仅次于输掉——三星研发自己的智能手表，以对付传说中的苹果产品。

三星移动业务继续执行副总裁李永熙最近拒绝接受《彭博新闻》（ Bloomberg News）专访时回应，三星早已“在智能手表研发打算了很长时间，”并“于是以全力以赴地为它作好各项打算。”It is unclear what a smartwatch by either Apple or Samsung will actually do, but it doesnt take the brainpower of 100 gifted Apple product engineers to figure it out. Thats because there are already a bevy of smartwatches on the market and they pretty much all do the same thing.苹果或三星研发的所谓“智能手表”究竟有什么功能目前还不得而知，但它觉得用不上100位天赋出众的苹果产品工程师为它绞尽脑汁地工作。因为市面上早已有很多“智能手表”了，而且它们的功能都大同小异。

The watch, usually inlaid in a tacky plastic band, connects to a smartphone via Bluetooth to deliver notifications from your phone to its tiny screen. The watch will alert you if you have an incoming call, by displaying the name and number of the contact, and some even display text messages. The watch can also control some apps and the phones music player, as well. Oh, and they all can tell you the time, too.这种手表一般来说是金字在一条俗气的塑料腕带里，通过蓝牙和智能手机相连，把手机上的各种信息传输到它的小屏幕上。比如，如果你有电话，它就不会表明电话人姓名和电话号码，有些还能表明短信。

这种手表还能掌控一些应用于和手机上的音乐播放器。哦，对了，它们还能表明时间。The idea of a smartwatch isnt new. Microsoft (MSFT), the king of failed digital products, rolled out its SPOT smartwatch to much fanfare in 2002 only to see it crater a few years later. The SPOT used FM radio signals to deliver real-time information to the watch, such as weather, traffic and sports scores. It didnt link up with your phone. (Back then, phones were still dummies.)智能手表这种创新一点都不新鲜。

比如，告终数码产品之王微软公司（Microsoft）2002年就曾多次大张旗鼓地发售了它的所谓“SPOT”智能手表，但几年后这玩意儿就销声匿迹了。SPOT通过调频广播信号向手表传输动态信息，比如天气、交通和体育比赛的比数等等。它并不和手机相连（那时候手机还没有现在这么智能）。

Imagine how handy it would be to have a travel alarm clock that, in addition to telling time very accurately and auto-adjusting to time-zones, could also wake you to your favorite WMA-encoded music, display information about road closures along your expected travel route, and deliver urgent messages, Bill Mitchell, general manager of the Microsoft Personal Objects Group, said about the SPOT watch in 2002.微软公司的个人用品集团（Personal Objects Group）总经理比尔?米切尔2002年曾这么撒谎了SPOT一番：“想想看，有这么一款旅行闹得表该有多便利。它除了能精确表明时间和自动适应环境不同时区外，还能用你最喜欢的WMA编码音乐睡觉你，能表明你想要回头的旅行路线上的道路堵塞信息，还能收到应急信息。

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