
In the past month, Apple has announced upgrades to Siri, its voice assistant; Google has unveiled new search agents that can carry out tasks on your behalf; and Nvidia has revealed a new chip for personal computers. Each outlined these plans, and many more, at their developer conferences. It’s not just the titans who turn product roadmaps into theatre(把产品路线图变成戏剧). Any self-regarding(自命不凡的) enterprise tech firm will hold a global conference for its “community” (Sapphire for SAP, Oracle AI World and so on). The likes of Salesforce and Stripe run roadshows(路演) taking the message to international users.
过去一个月,苹果宣布了对其语音助手Siri的升级;谷歌推出了能代你执行任务的新型搜索代理;英伟达则发布了一款用于个人电脑的新芯片。它们都在各自的开发者大会上阐述了这些计划,以及更多内容。并非只有巨头们才把产品路线图变成戏剧表演。任何自命不凡的企业级科技公司都会为其“社区”举办全球大会(例如SAP的Sapphire大会、Oracle AI World等)。Salesforce和Stripe等公司则举办路演,将信息传递给国际用户。
These jamborees(大型集会) matter. Very occasionally, most obviously with the launch of the iPhone in 2007, they change the world. They provide investors, developers and users with information about a firm’s product pipeline. They set deadlines for internal teams: all firms could benefit from a few fixed dates in the calendar where they have to show what they have been up to. But for anyone who thinks that the tech industry suffers from groupthink(群体思维), these events do not reassure. It doesn’t take long to see a slickly inauthentic formula(光鲜虚假的套路).
这些大型集会很重要。偶尔——最显著的是2007年iPhone的发布——它们能改变世界。它们为投资者、开发者和用户提供公司产品线的信息。它们为内部团队设定了截止日期:所有公司都能从几个必须展示工作成果的固定日期中受益。但对于任何认为科技行业患有群体思维的人来说,这些活动并不能让人安心。用不了多久,你就会看到一种光鲜虚假的套路。
Speakers hand off to each other(相互交接) by saying things like “And now here’s Kevin,” or “To tell you more about that, over to John.” A synth-laden(充满合成器音乐的) electronic soundtrack, muzak for developers, will blast out while one person leaves the stage and the next person takes their place. (Apple does its launches on video; the camera will find Kevin, or John, lurking(潜伏) somewhere on its Cupertino campus.)
演讲者相互交接时会说“现在有请Kevin”或“关于这一点,有请John来详细说明”。充满合成器音乐的电子配乐——开发者的背景音乐——会在一个人离开舞台、下一个人上场时响起。(苹果的发布是视频形式;镜头会在库比蒂诺园区的某个地方找到潜伏着的Kevin或John。)