The BlackBerry phone, whose tactile keyboard once made it the ultimate business gadget no self-respecting chief executive could be without, has been consigned to history by its maker.黑莓(BlackBerry)手机制造者让黑莓手机沦为了历史。它的触感键盘一度让所有自视甚高的首席执行官把黑莓作为必不可少的终极商业设备。Devotees - from the fictional Martin Lukes to the ultimate power user President Obama - have assumed the prayer position and risked thumb strains to bang out emails on its coveted keyboard over the years, but on Wednesday, its Canadian maker finally hung up on its hardware division, after failing to rekindle the wild success of its early days.从虚构的小说人物马丁卢克斯(Martin Lukes)到终极权力用户奥巴马总统等的拥趸曾多次对黑莓顶礼膜拜，多年来冒着拇指痉挛的风险在梦寐以求的键盘上赶写着邮件，但在本周三，这家加拿大制造商在没能缔造早年的疯狂之后，最后关闭了硬件部门。
Although phones with a BlackBerry badge will continue to be sold in markets like Indonesia, and possibly China and India, they will not be made or designed by the company that bears its name.尽管具有黑莓标识的手机将之后在印尼（有可能还有中国和印度）市场销售，但会由黑莓公司生产或设计。In effect, the BlackBerry era is over. 实质上，黑莓时代早已完结。The days when legions of CrackBerry addicts wandered through offices with their phone jutting out of a holster on their hip while complaining about ‘BlackBerry Thumb’ from the frenetic typing of emails, are long gone. 曾几何时，许多瘾莓们后腰上挎着手机套别着黑莓手机在办公室里走来走去，同时责怪可怕赶写邮件导致的黑莓拇指。
这个时代早就一去不复返了。The phone, which at the turn of the century was as much of a corporate status symbol as a shiny new Rolex or a Mont Blanc pen, lost its grip on the office as more iPhones and iPads started appearing on desks five years ago, and only the diehards have persevered.黑莓手机在本世纪初曾和崭新的劳力士(Rolex)手表或万宝龙(Montblanc)钢笔一样是企业地位的象征物，但随着5年前更好的iPhone和iPad经常出现在了办公桌上，如今它在办公室里早已失势了，只有铁杆用户还在坚决用黑莓。
It has been death by a thousand cuts for the phone business under chief executive John Chen, who has slowly unwound the company’s attempts to stay relevant in the handset market.在首席执行官程守宗(John Chen)的领导下，黑莓手机业务被凌迟处决——程渐渐地让黑莓公司离开了手机硬件市场。Waterloo, Ontario is now a hotbed of start-ups and a thriving technology industry, but that was far from the case in 1984, when Research In Motion was founded by two engineering students, Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin. 安大略省滑铁卢市如今是初创企业的温床，具有蓬勃发展的科技产业，但1984年的时候毕竟如此，当时两位工程专业学生迈克拉扎里迪斯(Mike Lazaridis)和道格拉斯弗雷金(Douglas Fregin)创办了RIM公司(Research in Motion)。
The tiny company started as a wireless data transmission business. 这家小公司一开始专门从事无线数据传输业务。By the 1990s it was making point-of-sale terminals and in 1996, launched the Inter@ctive Pager, which took it into competition with Motorola, then the giant of the mobile phone sector. 到上世纪90年代，它转而生产销售终端机，并在1996年发售了Inter@ctive Pager，从而与当时的移动电话巨头摩托罗拉(Motorola)进行了竞争。
The move into pagers, an unloved technology of yesteryear, paved the way for a sidestep into the growing handset market and RIM’s success anticipated the data-hungry habits of the modern smartphone user.进占曾遭到冷遇的传呼机领域为公司跨越一步迈向蒸蒸日上的手执设备市场铺平了道路，在现代智能手机用户构成渴望数据的习惯之前，RIM就已获得了顺利。In 1998, RIM had developed a handheld device ideal for emailing, which embedded a tiny Qwerty keyboard. 1998年，RIM研发了一款非常适合写出电子邮件的手执设备，映射了小巧的Qwerty键盘。It was set to be called the PocketLink or MegaMail, but the technology sector’s love of fruit-based branding claimed another hit when Lexicon Branding struck on the idea that the tiny keys felt like drupelets, the pockmarks on the skin of berry fruit. 该公司本来打算将它称作PocketLink或者MegaMail，但科技行业讨厌用水果给品牌命名，当时品牌推展公司Lexicon Branding想起这些按键就像莓类水果表面布满的细小颗粒。
Strawberry was deemed too slow sounding for a technology brand and the name BlackBerry was born.对一个科技品牌来说，草莓(Strawberry)念起来不过于顺口，于是黑莓(BlackBerry)之名问世了。The ability to email on the move caught fire and transformed RIM into a major player in the electronics market. 出外也能发邮件这项功能让黑莓火了一起，并使得RIM沦为电子产品市场上的一个主要参与者。
Thumb-wheels for scrolling were added, the screens got bigger and soon a phone was added to the device, initially one that could only be used with an external headset. 黑莓设备又减少了拇指轮滑动功能，屏幕更加大，迅速又特了电话功能——最初不能利用外部耳机。By the time the BlackBerry 6210 was issued in 2002, the device had become a must-have tool not only for business people but also consumers that loved the keyboard. 到2002年发售黑莓6210的时候，它早已某种程度是商务人士的不可或缺工具，而且还是青睐全键盘的消费者的不可或缺工具。
A legion of Crackberry addicts emerged.成群的瘾莓经常出现了。Nokia and Microsoft both tried to match BlackBerry’s dominance in the enterprise market, but the Canadian company was also able to trade off its speed, reliability and security as it ran its own software and servers. 诺基亚(Nokia)和微软公司(Microsoft)都曾企图争夺战黑莓在企业市场的主导地位，但这家加拿大公司在运营自己的软件和服务器时还能利用其速度、可靠性和安全性这些优势。By the time that the BlackBerry Pearl, Curve and Bold models started selling by the millions, the company found itself as an unlikely star in the teenage market, with young users flocking to use its secure messaging product in a pre-WhatsApp and Snapchat era. 到黑莓的Pearl、Curve和Bold等机型开始以百万计的数量热销时，该公司发现自己已沦为十几岁年轻人市场上一颗不可思议的明星，在WhatsApp和Snapchat时代到来之前，年长用户争相用于黑莓的安全性短信产品。
Many bought those models and never bothered tapping in a phone number.很多人出售了这些机型，但从来不电话电话号码。Mr Lazaridis and his co-chief executive Jim Balsillie believed the hype and would enter the stage at trade shows to the blaring tunes of the Black Eyed Peas, something unthinkable when it was solely focused on its core market of business users. 拉扎里迪斯及其联席首席执行官吉姆贝尔斯利(Jim Balsillie)坚信宣传，他们不会在黑眼豆豆乐队(Black Eyed Peas)嘈杂的音乐声中走出商业展览的舞台——在黑莓专心于核心的企业用户市场的时候，这种事是不可想象的。
A botched launch into the tablet market followed, as sales started to stutter and the longstanding management team moved aside in 2012.后来黑莓在进占平板市场时告败，销售额开始衰退，长年管理团队在2012年经历变动。Too much had been riding on the 2012 launch of BlackBerry 10, a new software platform and phone series, that was meant to go head-to-head with the latest iPhones and Android handsets. 黑莓把太多的赌局遣在2012年黑莓10的发售，这是一个新的软件平台和手机系列，原意是要与最新款的iPhone和安卓手机一决雌雄的。Hubris was evident as senior executives boasted that it had 80m subscribers and nothing to worry about. 骄傲自满的情绪显露出无不，黑莓高管们炫耀称之为，自己享有8000万用户，什么都不必担忧。
The software flopped, the phones flopped and BlackBerry — which dropped the RIM name during this period — never recovered, as its subscriber base rapidly eroded.结果软件告终了，手机也告终了，黑莓（在此期间退出了RIM的名字）很久没完全恢复，其用户基础很快衰退。Mr Chen has thrown a huge amount of effort into reviving its fortunes in the corporate market with the giant square Passport phone — designed for architects and spreadsheet lovers — at least capturing the attention. 程守宗采行大量措施借此挽回黑莓在企业市场的雄风，最少也要更有目光。
他发售了方屏大尺寸手机Passport，这款手机专为建筑师和制表爱好者设计。He also released Android-based handsets to broaden its appeal and added a nostalgic tinge to the product line with the Classic model that recreated the Bold design.他还公布了配备安卓系统(Android)的手机借此强化其产品吸引力，并给产品减少了一丝浪漫色彩，Classic机型重现了Bold机型的设计。
It proved too little, too late and BlackBerry now joins the likes of Palm and Psion in the legacy brand lounge for tech hardware. 事实证明，这些希望起到太小了，也太迟了，黑莓现在已重新加入Palm和Psion之列，沦为科技硬件领域的历史杨家品牌。Yet like Nokia, the name BlackBerry will continue to resonate.然而，与诺基亚一样，黑莓这个名字仍将之后回响。
本文来源：半岛平台官网-www.hptonerdeal.com
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