????2000年的某個時候，我的同事福林?克林肯伯格開始帶著自己的蘋果筆記本電腦參加《紐約時報》編委會。一看到這玩意，其他人立刻紛涌上前，圍觀這臺散發(fā)酷炫背光、圓潤光滑的白色電腦，吃不準(zhǔn)福林到底是不是真的要用它工作。一些同事上大學(xué)時也用過蘋果電腦，但誰沒在大學(xué)時干過點瘋狂的事兒呢？

????蘋果電腦真能用來辦公嗎？福林向我們保證，它可不是什么玩具，我們的電腦能干的這臺Mac都能干——上網(wǎng)、發(fā)郵件之類的，并信誓旦旦地斷言它很可靠，絕不會像PC那樣經(jīng)常死機。福林宣稱，他的蘋果電腦不會感染一直困擾“微軟英特爾聯(lián)盟”的各種討厭病毒，我對此將信將疑。等我也買了一臺Mac后，立刻覺得自己時尚多了。

????時光飛逝，轉(zhuǎn)眼就到了2015年，現(xiàn)在如果有人在會議上拿出一臺不是蘋果的筆記本電腦，那才是新鮮事兒呢。同時蘋果也保留了其獨特性?？梢哉f它一直是在大眾化和引領(lǐng)潮流之間走鋼絲，在努力贏得前者的同時，不犧牲后者。

????最近，蘋果公司公布了美國公司史上盈利最豐厚的一個財季，在過去三個月中，它售出了約7500萬臺iPhone和550萬臺Mac。這使首席執(zhí)行官蒂姆?庫克，史蒂夫?喬布斯腳踏實地的繼任者，在季報電話會議上情難自禁，稱這個財季“具有歷史意義”，公司的業(yè)績——按一周七天，每天24小時算，相當(dāng)于每小時賣出34,000臺iPhone——“令人難以置信”。蘋果現(xiàn)在是全球價值最高的公司，市值約7000億美元，手握1800億美元現(xiàn)金。iTunes商店擁有8億活躍用戶，著實令人驚嘆。

????盡管這些數(shù)字如此巨大，但最讓人目瞪口呆的是，蘋果產(chǎn)品遠(yuǎn)不如一般人所想象的那么普及。它還有很大的成長空間，實際上，它可能才剛起步。

????看看現(xiàn)有產(chǎn)品線就會發(fā)現(xiàn)，蘋果只不過統(tǒng)治了平板電腦市場。全球有三分之二的智能手機搭載的是安卓操作系統(tǒng)。在全球電腦銷量排行中，蘋果僅位列第五，在美國市場上也僅位列第三。蘋果還能從對手那里搶到很大的市場份額。

????蘋果的增長戰(zhàn)略是極具原則的。它不會大幅降價或推出性能平平的產(chǎn)品來迎合新興市場中那些囊中羞澀的消費者。它只會拿出精心設(shè)計、價格高昂的產(chǎn)品，將其打造為新興中產(chǎn)消費者渴望的、彰顯身份的象征。

????蘋果進(jìn)軍一系列新興市場的腳步才剛剛啟動，它很可能將在很短時間內(nèi)徹底改變或統(tǒng)治這些市場。號稱要成為無所不能的電子錢包的Apple Pay，就是一個強勁的開端。而那些羽翼未豐的項目，如HomeKit，CarPlay，iBeacon以及Apple Watch，則讓我們看清了蘋果未曾明說的終極目標(biāo)：提供一個端口或一套操作系統(tǒng)，將你的蘋果設(shè)備與你的汽車和住宅連接在一起。

????沒有哪家公司能像蘋果這樣，讓我們的生活實現(xiàn)無縫連接。意大利小說家安伯托?艾柯1990年代曾說過一句名言，蘋果就像天主教，信徒們只能遵循一種行為方式，而微軟（如今你也可以說谷歌）則更像是新教，信徒們可以有更多方式得出自己的結(jié)論并自行組織起來。

????有鑒于此，蘋果的前景看上去比以往任何時候都更加光明。這家公司曾經(jīng)自稱為斗志昂揚的失敗者，聲稱要幫我們“不同凡想”（think different），而如今，過于成功才是它面臨的唯一威脅。蘋果現(xiàn)在面臨的挑戰(zhàn)在于：如果蘋果的產(chǎn)品成為控制我們生活并與他人聯(lián)絡(luò)的不可或缺的手段時，它還能那么酷嗎？

????為此我特地去請教目前在耶魯大學(xué)任教的福林，看他是否還固守著蘋果的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)。確實還這樣，而且他現(xiàn)在依然還清楚地記得在2000年開始膜拜Mac電腦之前使用Windows系統(tǒng)的糟糕體驗。但他跟即將上市的Apple Watch劃清了界線：“我從來就不戴手表，也不能想象現(xiàn)在要開始戴?！保ㄘ敻恢形木W(wǎng)）

????本文作者安德烈?馬丁內(nèi)斯是《左卡羅廣場》的主編，他在該刊上辟有Trade Winds專欄。

????譯者：清遠(yuǎn)

????審校：任文科

????Sometime in 2000, my colleague Verlyn Klinkenborg started bringing his Mac laptop to our New York Times editorial board meetings. The rest of us would hover around the sleek white machine with the cool lighting radiating from it, wondering if Verlyn could possibly be serious. Some of us had used Apple computers AAPL -0.84% in college, sure, but everyone does crazy things in college.

????Was an Apple really fit for a workplace? Verlyn assured us that it was no toy, and that his Mac could do all the things ours could—the mix of surfing, emailing, and pontificating that the gig entailed—without crashing as frequently as our PCs. Verlyn claimed that his Apple was not susceptible to those nasty viruses that plagued our land of “WinTel,” and I wanted to believe him. I too bought a Mac and instantly felt cooler as a result.

????Fast forward to 2015, when the novelty would be for someone at a meeting to take out a laptop that isn’t an Apple. And, somehow, the caché remains. Apple has walked the tightrope between ubiquity and coolness, attaining one without sacrificing the other.

????The company recently announced the most profitable quarter in U.S. corporate history, a three-month period in which it sold almost 75 million iPhones and 5.5 million Macs. CEO Tim Cook, Steve Jobs’ down-to-earth successor, couldn’t help himself on the earnings call, describing the quarter as “historic” and his company’s performance—selling an average of 34,000 iPhones an hour, 24/7—as “hard to comprehend.” Apple is now the world’s most valuable company, with a stock market valuation of some $700 billion and nearly $180 billion in cash on hand. The company’s iTunes store counts a staggering 800 million active users.

????What’s most astonishing, given those numbers, is that Apple is far less ubiquitous than you might think. It has plenty of room to grow. Indeed, it may only be getting started.

????If you look at its existing product lines, Apple only dominates the tablet market. The competing Android operating system runs more than two-thirds of the world’s smartphones. Apple ranks fifth worldwide in the number of computers sold, and third in the U.S. There is plenty of market share left for Apple to steal from others.

????Apple’s growth strategy is disciplined. The company doesn’t slash prices or create subpar products to meet less affluent consumers in emerging markets halfway. Apple instead holds out its meticulously designed, pricier products as coveted trophies for new middle-class consumers.

????Apple is only starting to wade into an array of markets that it will likely revolutionize, and dominate, in short order. Apple Pay, its bid to become your all-encompassing cashless wallet, is off to a strong start. Fledgling Apple ventures like HomeKit, CarPlay, iBeacon, and the Apple Watch provide clues to Apple’s unstated, ultimate goal: providing you with one portal, or operating system, that links your Apple devices to your car and your home.

????No other company is anywhere near being able to match Apple in providing us with such seamless curation of our lives. The Italian novelist Umberto Eco famously said in the 1990s that Apple was like Catholicism in that its followers had to adhere to one way of doing things, while Microsoft (you could say Google nowadays) was more akin to Protestantism, which gave followers more latitude to reach their own conclusions and organize themselves accordingly.

????And so Apple’s prospects appear brighter than ever. Its own success would seem to be the only threat to a company that has billed itself as the scrappy underdog that promised to help us “think different.” Therein lies the company’s existential challenge: Can Apple remain cool if its products become the one indispensable means of controlling your life and communicating with others?

????I reached out to Verlyn, who now teaches at Yale, to ask whether he’s still inhabiting the Apple ecosystem. He is, and his disgust at his pre-2000 Windows experience sounds as raw as it did when he first started proselytizing for the Mac. But he draws a line at the coming Apple Watch: “I’ve never worn a watch, and I can’t imagine starting now.”

????Andrés Martinez is editorial director of Zocalo Public Square, for which he writes the Trade Winds column.