實體鍵盤終成絕唱 黑莓經典款將停產

The struggling Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry made a sharp detour from its history on Tuesday with the announcement that it was discontinuing the last phone to have the company’s iconic physical keyboard and trackpad.

週二，艱難掙扎的加拿大智能手機製造商黑莓(BlackBerry)大幅度改變一貫路線，宣佈停止生產最後一款擁有該公司標誌性實體鍵盤和觸控板的手機。

“Sometimes it can be very tough to let go,” Ralph Pini, BlackBerry’s chief operating officer and general manager for devices, wrote in a corporate blog post announcing the end of the BlackBerry Classic. “For BlackBerry, and more importantly for our customers, the hardest part in letting go is accepting that change makes way for new and better experiences.”

“有時放棄很難，”黑莓的首席運營官兼電子設備總經理拉爾夫·皮尼(Ralph Pini)在公司博客上宣佈黑莓經典(BlackBerry Classic)停產的帖子中寫道，“對黑莓來說，更重要的是對我們的顧客來說，放棄最難的一點是接受變化將帶來更新更好的體驗。”

The Classic was introduced in late 2014 by BlackBerry to win back users who prefer plastic keys and trackpads to the touch screens that dominate the operation of its newer models, even ones with keyboards.

經典款是黑莓2014年底推出的，目的是重新贏得那些偏愛塑料按鍵和觸控板，而不喜歡觸摸屏的用戶。在黑莓較新的機型上，主要的操作已經在使用觸摸屏，甚至包括仍然有實體鍵盤的機型。

Because the company does not break out sales of individual models, it is impossible to judge the Classic’s reception. But BlackBerry’s phone business is generally unprofitable and declining.

因爲該公司不公佈每款手機單獨的銷量，所以無法判斷經典款的受歡迎程度。不過，黑莓的手機業務總體來說沒有利潤，銷量下滑。

Late last month, BlackBerry announced a quarterly loss of $670 million. That was about three times the company’s loss in the previous quarter and largely reflected write-downs in the value of its phone business.

上月下旬，黑莓宣佈在第一個財務季度虧損6.7億美元，大約是上一財季虧損額的三倍，這在很大程度上反映出該公司手機業務的貶值。

The Classic ran the BlackBerry 10 operating system, which the company had hoped would again make it a vibrant force in smartphones. But it has since turned its attention to phones based on Google’s Android software.

經典款使用的是黑莓10操作系統，公司曾希望該系統能再次讓它成爲智能手機市場上的強手。不過後來，公司的注意力又轉向了使用谷歌Android系統的手機。

Mr. Pini’s post made no mention of the fate of the other BlackBerry 10 models, which still appeared on the company’s website Tuesday evening.

皮尼的博客帖子沒有提及其他基於黑莓10系統的機型的命運。週二晚上，它們依然出現在該公司的網站上。

He did acknowledge, however, that some customers may still refuse to give up on the traditional BlackBerry shape regardless of the company’s plans.

不過他承認，不管該公司有什麼計劃，有些顧客可能會依然拒絕放棄傳統的黑莓造型。

Die-hards were encouraged by Mr. Pini to see if their carriers still had Classics available. He added that BlackBerry had some remaining stock on sale online.

皮尼鼓勵死忠粉去看看他們的運營商是否仍供應經典款。他還補充說，黑莓還有些庫存經典款在網上銷售。