消費電子產品 頂級的未必划算 Jan 15, 2007《紐時周報全文精譯》 2007/01/19 The Best Technology Is Not Always a Deal 張佑生譯 耶誕節隔天，大螢幕電視機降價，勞爾‧艾克斯特先生迅速下手行動。 The day after Christmas, prices on big screen TVs went down and Raul Axtle pounced. 艾克斯特先生和16歲大的兒子夏新，前往加州艾莫利威爾市的一間電子商 店，購買一架夏新早就認定螢幕最適合打電玩的電視機，102公分的三星液晶 平面電視。 Mr. Axtle and his 16-year-old son, Shaheen, headed to an electronics store in Emeryville, California, to buy the TV that Shaheen had decided was the perfect screen for displaying video games, a 102-centimeter Samsung liquid crystal display flat panel. 四月剛上市時的售價是3000美元，艾克斯特先生用1600美元就買到了，比 耶誕節前還少了600美元。 It sold for $3,000 in April when it was introduced, but Mr. Axtle bought it for $1,600: $600 less than it was before Christmas. 而且，他當然知道以後還會更便宜。「每樣商品都不斷降價，」他說：「明 年的電視機會更好。」 And, yes, he knows it will be even cheaper tomorrow. “Everything keeps coming down in price,” he said. “Next year the TVs will be even better.” 選購消費性電子商品，未來比現在便宜，而且功能更強，已被視為理所當 然。上個世紀廠商故意設計製造很快就會報銷的產品，讓汰換加速的那一套講 法，已成了明日黃花。無論是寬螢幕電視或手機，隨身聽，數位相機，隨身碟 或外接硬碟，這些電子商品通常不會用到報銷才換新。反而是消費者會覺得非 買新的設備不可，因為新的比舊的做得更多、更快、更好，還更便宜。 Paying less in the future for a device that can do more is now taken for granted when shopping for consumer electronics. Gone is last century’s theory of planned obsolescence in which manufacturers designed and built products that would quickly wear out and have to be replaced. Whether it is a big flat screen TV or cellphone, handheld music player, digital camera, flash drive and or external hard drive, these electronics do not usually wear out before they are replaced. Rather, the consumer may feel compelled to buy because the device does more, does it faster or does it better for less money than the original. 「一個重大的轉變正在發生，」市調公司「流行分析」研究主任沙米爾‧ 巴瓦尼表示：「人們原本認為一項商品可以用上十年，可是才用三年就換了， 手機更是年年更新。」 “There is a fundamental shift that is taking place,” says Samir Bhavnani, research director at Current Analysis, a market research firm. “People thought a product would last 10 years. They keep it three years. They upgrade their cellphone every year.” 但是新的汰換觀可能會讓消費者進退失據，因為如果產品以後會更便宜， 現在買就沒什麼道理。知道何時買已經變得和知道買什麼同樣重要。 But this new form of obsolescence can stymie the consumer because it makes little sense to buy now if the product will be cheaper tomorrow. Knowing when to buy becomes as important as knowing what to buy. 不要奢望你能跟得上科技演進的步伐。應該在有需要的時候買需要的產品 ──而且要真買得起。 You cannot hope to keep pace with the technological change. You buy what you need when you need it — and when you can truly afford it. 不妨把個人電腦的經驗應用到電視機和其他設備上面。目前價格最理想的 電視機是螢幕解析度720p的，艾克斯特先生買的就是這個等級。 It might be useful to apply the PC lessons to TVs and other devices. The best prices for TVs right now are for a level of screen resolution called 720p, which is what the Axtles bought. 電視機業者用這個數字來指螢幕的畫素或圖點數目。畫素愈多，影像愈清 晰。所以1080p的電視比較好，但是價格也比較貴。 The number is television industry shorthand for the number of pixels, or dots, on the screen. More pixels and the picture is more defined. So TVs with 1080p are better. But they are also more expensive. 可是，不是還有更好的要上市嗎？是的，1440p，解析度更高，雖然目前 只有一家業者，規模很大但知名度不高的台灣廠商奇美電子，宣稱將於2007年 進入量產。 But isn’t something even better coming? Yes, 1440p, an even higher level of resolution, although at this point only one maker, a large but obscure Taiwanese manufacturer, Chi Mei Optoelectronics, claims to have one ready for production in 2007. 新力電子美國區總裁史坦‧葛萊斯戈表示，解析度將持續增進，如同數位 相機的（百萬）畫素更多，或個人電腦的硬碟容量更大。他在談到1440p規格時 表示：「尚需時日。」（有幾位業界分析師表示價格約可在2010年前後普及化。） Stan Glasgow, president of Sony’s electronics unit in the United States, says resolution will continue to improve, just like digital cameras take pictures with more megapixels or PCs come with ever-larger hard drives. “It will be a longtime coming,” he said of the 1440p standard. (Several industry analysts said it would be affordable around the end of the decade.) 你想知道現在該怎麼辦。基本原則是記住，對於對角線長度不到152公分， 也就是最多人選購的那些螢幕而言，畫素是720p或1080p差別不大。因為如果你 和電視機距離3公尺以上，便看不出差別。本身是工程師也是家庭劇院設計顧問 的卡爾頓‧貝爾如此認為，他有一個討論大螢幕電視機的部落格。 You want to know what to do now. The basic point to remember is that in screens with a diagonal measurement of less than 152 centimeters, which is what most people buy, it makes little difference whether the TV is 720p or 1080p. That is because if your TV is 3 meters away or more, you cannot tell the difference, said Carlton Bale, an engineer and home theater design consultant who runs a blog on big- screen TVs. 貝爾先生說：「大多數人看電視不會坐得那麼近。」 “Most people do not sit that close to their TV,” Mr. Bale said. 「別去選購市面上最複雜先進的機型，」他說。「最複雜先進機型的某些 功能，你大概一時半會還不會常常用到。」 “Don’t go for the highest-end model out there,” he said. “You probably won’t be able to regularly use the features of the highest-end models for a while.” 對16歲的夏新‧艾克斯特來說，買了新電視之後，他考慮要換掉用了一年 的手機。「總會有更好的東西，」他說：「我現在已經習慣這樣了。」 As for 16-year-old Shaheen Axtle, after getting the TV, he was thinking about replacing his year-old cellphone. “There will always be something better,” he said. “I’m used to that by now.” By DAMON DARLIN -- 趙客縵胡纓 吳鉤霜雪明 銀鞍照白馬 颯沓如流星 十步殺一人 千里不留行 事了拂衣去 深藏身與名 閒過信陵飲 脫劍膝前橫 將炙啖朱亥 持觴勸侯贏 三盃吐然諾 五嶽倒為輕 眼花耳熱後 意氣素霓生 救趙揮金槌 邯鄲先震驚 千秋二壯士 烜赫大梁城 縱使俠骨香 不慚世上英 誰能書閤下 白首太玄經 李白 俠客行 --

※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 139.223.28.55