巨屏受熱捧 平板手機漸風靡

Like waistlines in many prosperous countries, cellphones are going XXL and some of their owners are struggling to tuck them in.

就像許多富裕國家居民的腰圍一樣，如今手機的尺寸也在逐漸增大，一些手機用戶在費勁地想辦法把它們塞進自己的兜裏。

Jeremy Roche, 47 years old, owns a Samsung Galaxy Note II phone that is about 75% larger than the original Apple Inc. iPhone, and roughly the size and heft of an extra-large Hershey's chocolate bar, with about an inch nibbled off the end.

47歲的羅奇(Jeremy Roche)擁有一臺三星(Samsung) Galaxy Note II手機，這款手機比蘋果公司(Apple Inc.)推出的第一代iPhone差不多大了75%，大體和一塊被啃掉一英寸左右的超大號好時(Hershey's)巧克力的體積和重量差不多。

On the streets of San Francisco, where the U.K.-based Mr. Roche frequently travels, he says iPhone users often stop him to compare their phone size with his. 'I would say most days when I'm out and about people remark on the size of my phone,' says Mr. Roche, chief executive of business-software company Inc.

華爲Ascend Mate羅奇是商業軟件公司 Inc.的首席執行長，在英國工作，經常到舊金山出差。他說，在舊金山街頭，常常有iPhone用戶叫住他來比較手機的大小。他表示，我得說，當我外出的時候，大部分時間裏都有人會對我的手機尺寸說上點什麼。

It 'did feel weird' at first to hold his big phone to his head for calls, he says, but now he loves his ample screen.

他說，最初舉着巨型手機打電話確實感覺奇怪，但現在他愛上了這款手機的大屏。

After years of evolution from brick-size monstrosities into slim pocket devices, cellphones are going in reverse. South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. is credited─or blamed─with bringing big phones back into the mainstream with devices like the original 5.3-inch Note, introduced outside the U.S. in late 2011.

在經歷了多年來從磚頭般的龐然大物向小巧口袋設備的演變後，如今手機又踏上了回頭路。韓國三星電子(Samsung Electronics Co.)因帶領巨型手機重返主流，獲得的評價可說是譭譽參半；該公司陸續推出了幾款大尺寸的手機，比如於2011年底在美國以外地區發售的第一代5.3英寸Note。

'We're actually proud that we've created the category,' said Kevin Packingham, chief product officer for Samsung's mobile business.

三星移動業務首席產品長派金漢姆(Kevin Packingham)稱，事實上，我們對於開創這一產品門類頗感自豪。

Some tech reviewers at the time derided the big phone as 'silly,' and 'a phone designed for giants.' But sales boomed, and other makers have followed with still-bigger 'phablets,' as techies are beginning to call them─a cross between a phone and a tablet.

有的科技評論家當時曾譏諷這款巨型手機“傻里傻氣”、“專爲巨人設計”。但巨型手機的銷量卻實現了激增，其他手機生產商也紛紛跟風推出了越來越大的、科技專家開始稱爲“平板手機”的產品──手機和平板電腦的跨界組合。

Shipments of smartphones with screens 4.6 inches or larger grew to 82.7 million units last year from 1.8 million units in 2011, says New York-based market-research firm ABI Research.

總部位於紐約的市場調研機構ABI Research稱，去年，屏幕在4.6英寸及以上的智能手機發貨量從2011年的180萬臺增至8,270萬臺。

While some users can't imagine going small again, the phablet has drawbacks, including strange stares and tight squeezes in handbags and slacks. 'I hate how I can't text in class anymore cause my phone's too big,' tweeted one Twitter user.

正當許多科技產品製造商着力打造更小巧的產品時，2013年美國消費電子產品展(CES)上亮相的一些設備卻變得越來越大。“平板手機”(phablet)就是一種比智能手機大，但又算不上平板電腦的移動設備。《華爾街日報》Ian Sherr和Thomas Gryta報道。雖然部分用戶已無法想象重拾小巧手機，但是平板手機也有其劣勢，包括他人異樣的目光以及鼓鼓囊囊的提包和褲子。一名推特(Twitter)用戶通過推特抱怨道，我真討厭不能再在課堂上發短信了，因爲我的手機太大了。

Scott Jordan, 48, was caught off guard by the large phone revolution. Mr. Jordan is chief executive of Scottevest, which sells garments with up to three dozen pockets cut to hold cellphones, a digital camera and other necessities. As he roamed displays at a Las Vegas technology conference last week, Mr. Jordan ran into a snag with his latest jacket prototype.

Scottevest首席執行長、48歲的喬丹(Scott Jordan)被巨型手機革命搞了個措手不及。Scottevest銷售的是多至三十幾個口袋的服裝，用以讓客戶放置手機、數碼相機和其他必需品。本月初，當喬丹在拉斯維加斯一場科技展上四處轉悠的時候，他發現了一個有關其公司最新款夾克樣衣的問題。

'I grabbed one of the newest Samsung devices, and put it in my pocket, and said, 'sh─, this doesn't fit,' ' Mr. Jordan says.

喬丹說，我拿起了一款最新的三星設備，嘗試着放進口袋，完了，居然塞不進去。

He immediately emailed Scottevest employees to see if it was too late to halt production of the Tropiformer jacket, and add a half inch of wiggle room on each side of the quick-use cellphone pocket. He missed the deadline. The next production lines will have a bigger pocket, he says.

他立即給Scottevest的員工發了郵件，以瞭解是否還來得及叫停Tropiformer夾克衫的生產，並將便捷手機口袋每邊增加半英寸的靈活空間。可惜爲時已晚。他說，下一代夾克衫的手機口袋會加大。

The U.S. is actually a phablet laggard. Large-display smartphones are much more prevalent in Europe and are particularly favored in China, Japan and other parts of Asia. Smartphone vendors in China say they see women who carry a big phone in their purse, and a second, smaller cellphone to keep more readily accessible in a clothes pocket.

事實上，美國在平板手機的普及上處於落後地位。大屏智能手機在歐洲要流行得多，在中國、日本和亞洲其他地區更是受到追捧。中國智能手機賣家們稱，他們發現有的女士把一個巨型手機放在提包裏，把另一個更小的手機放在衣服口袋裏，以便更輕鬆地取用。

Last week, Chinese electronics company Huawei Technology Co. upped the big phone ante by introducing what it says is a smartphone with the largest screen in the world. With its 6.1-inch display, measured diagonally, the Ascend Mate has more than double the surface area of the original iPhone introduced in 2007. As tablet computers get smaller, the Huawei device also is creeping close to the display size of small tablets such as Google Inc.'s 7-inch Nexus.

本月，中國電信企業華爲技術有限公司(Huawei Technology Co.)推出了號稱全球屏幕最大的智能手機，加大了對巨型手機的投入力度。該款名爲Ascend Mate的手機擁有6.1英寸大屏，屏幕面積是2007年第一代iPhone的兩倍多。如今的平板電腦漸趨小巧，華爲這款產品的屏幕尺寸已逼近小型平板電腦，例如谷歌公司(Google Inc.)出品的七英寸Nexus等。

In a press release, Huawei said the phone is 'slim and stylish, designed to fit comfortably in a single hand.' A spokeswoman for Huawei declined further comment. The phone, which is 3.4-inches wide, will be available in China next month.

華爲Ascend Mate在一次新聞發佈會上，華爲表示，Ascend Mate輕薄時尚，可以單手輕鬆掌握。華爲的發言人未就此進一步置評。這款寬度爲3.4英寸的手機將於下月在中國上市。

Farès Fayad, a 39-year-old consultant in Dubai, says the Huawei phone should carry the marketing tagline, 'designed for Shaq,' the retired supersize basketball star.

已退役的大塊頭籃球球星、39歲的法亞德(Fares Fayad)現在是迪拜的一名顧問。他說，華爲的這款手機應該配上宣傳語“爲大鯊魚奧尼爾(Shaq)定製”。

Still, Mr. Fayad says he used to think a 3.5-inch cellphone screen was just right, until he tried the iPhone 5, which has a 4-inch screen. 'I don't believe I can go back to the slightly smaller screen,' Mr. Fayad says.

不過，法亞德稱，他過去曾認爲3.5英寸的手機屏幕恰到好處，這一想法直到他用過四英寸的iPhone 5後才被改變。法亞德稱，我認爲自己已不能再回頭去用哪怕只小一點兒的手機了。

Some ergonomics experts worry large phones could pose an injury risk. 'As the stretch to reach all areas of the screen increases, we might start to see more serious repetitive stress injuries─likely to the thumbs─in larger touch-screen devices,' says Anthony Andre, a professor of human factors and ergonomics at San Jose State University.

一些人類工程學專家擔心巨型手機可能有帶來損傷的風險。聖何塞州立大學(San Jose State University)人因工程學教授安德烈(Anthony Andre)稱，由於觸控全屏需增加拉伸的幅度，我們可能會開始看到越來越多由大型觸屏電子設備引發的嚴重重複性勞損，例如對拇指的損害。

And some people deride the very nickname. Word lovers organized by the American Dialect Society earlier this month voted 'phablet' into a virtual tie as the 'least likely to succeed' word of the year. (Tied for linguistic loserdom was 'YOLO' or 'You Only Live Once,' a term that has come to be used sarcastically for acts of brazen stupidity.)

還有一些人嗤笑“平板手機”這個暱稱。由美國方言協會(American Dialect Society)組織的文字愛好者本月早些時候將“平板手機”選爲本年度“留存可能性最小”詞語的並列冠軍。（並列獲得這一殊榮的是“YOLO”，該詞是“你只活一次”的英文首字母縮寫，被人們用來挖苦明目張膽的愚蠢行爲。）

Unlike dress hemlines, which go up and down with fashion trends, most computing technology started huge and gets smaller. The first computers filled entire rooms. The first digital camera weighed 8.5 pounds.

與追隨時尚潮流忽長忽短的裙子不同，大多數電腦科技產物都是誕生之初龐大，日後漸趨小型化。第一代計算機佔據了整個房間。第一臺數碼照相機則重達8.5磅。

Cellphones got smaller and smaller, too. An early Motorola cellphone model was about the size of a brick. Popular culture imagined gadgets would continue to contract to the point of parody.

手機同樣也越變越小。一款早期摩托羅拉(Motorola)手機的體積和磚頭不相上下。按照流行文化的設想，電子設備將繼續縮小到滑稽的程度。

'Zoolander,' a 2001 movie about supercool male models, mined jokes from a character's ridiculously small cellphone. In a 2005 'Saturday Night Live' sketch, an actor playing Steve Jobs kept introducing smaller and smaller iPod models until he got to the 'iPod Invisa,' which appeared not to exist at all.

2001年上映的有關超酷男模的電影《超級名模》(Zoolander)就針對其中一個角色的小得可笑的手機設計了笑點。在2005年一期《週六夜現場》(Saturday Night Live)的幽默小品中，一名扮成喬布斯(Steve Jobs)的演員不斷地推薦越來越輕薄的iPod產品，直至“iPod無影型”(iPod Invisa)才偃旗息鼓。在展示那款“iPod無影型”時，看起來壓根就是沒有東西的。

As phones get bigger, the goal posts are moving on what qualifies as big. Josh Flood, an ABI analyst, says after seeing more big phones hit the market, he amended the upper end of what qualifies as a phablet to 6.5 inches from 5.5 inches.

隨着手機越變越大，有關“巨型”的界定標準也在不斷改變。ABI分析師弗勒德(Josh Flood)稱，在見到越來越多的巨型手機上市後，他將平板手機定義的尺寸上限從5.5英寸上調至6.5英寸。

Mr. Flood says it is 'highly unlikely' he'll need to amend upwards his phablet standard again. 'However, I am sure people in the past said that about smartphones bigger than 5 inches,' he says.

弗勒德稱，他再度上調平板手機尺寸標準的可能性極小。但是他還稱，不過我確定以前人們說過智能手機最大也大不過五英寸。