翻译自经济学人，修改借鉴可可英语，其实我翻译得比他好。
Business: The future of Apple Shake it off
商业：苹果未来能否摆脱困境
The world’s most valuable company needs another mega hit.
这家世界上最有价值的公司需要另一个重磅产品。
“Our product pipeline has amazing innovations in store,” Tim Cook, the boss of Apple, declared on April 26th.
“我们的产品线将有振奋的革新”，苹果公司老板蒂姆•库克在4月26日称。
He hoped to sound reassuring after the company reported its first year-on-year quarterly revenue decline since 2003.
他希望在公司季度同比收入自2003年来首次出现下滑后让大家对公司放心。
But he was not convincing enough.
但他不够让人信服。
Shares of Apple fell by around 8% in the hours after its results emerged, erasing more than $46 billion in market value.
财报出来后几小时内，苹果的股价就下跌了大约百分之八，市值蒸发了460亿美元。
Investors’ immediate concern is the popularity of the iPhone.
投资者首先关注的是iPhone。
It accounts for the bulk of Apple’s revenues and profits; sales were 18% lower than a year ago.
它占据了苹果收入和利润的大部分，但销售量比去年下降了18%。
The broader smartphone market is sluggish, says Mr Cook.
广阔的整个智能手机市场发展有所放缓，库克说道。
Apple hopes that the flashy new features of the iPhone 7, which it is expected to introduce in September, will convince customers to abandon older models.
苹果希望即将在9月发布的，有着亮眼特性的iPhone7，能让顾客放弃他们老旧的型号。
Until then, the company will probably face a further fall in revenue.
到那时之前，苹果公司可能会面临收入进一步下滑的问题。
The bigger question that Mr Cook must answer is whether Apple will ever have another product as successful as the iPhone, the most lucrative in the technology business to date.
库克要回答的更重要的一个问题是苹果能够推出另一款像iPhone一样成功的产品。iPhone是目前科技市场上利润率最高的产品。
Enthusiasm has waned for some of its other older products, such as iPads, and its newer ones remain niche offerings.
人们对于苹果目前如iPad这样的产品的热情已经衰减，而它新推出的产品仍只是小众的产品。
The Apple Watch celebrated its first full year on the market on April 24th.
4月24日，苹果手表发售一周年。
It sold more in its first year than the iPhone did in 2007.
它的销量比2007年iPhone的销量大。
But today’s consumers are better primed to buy gadgets now than they were then; watch sales should be far higher.
但今天的消费者比那时对电子产品更加热衷，销量理应更大。
The cost of the Apple Watch—which starts at $300—puts people off.
苹果手表300美元的起步价格，让人们望而却步。
So does its dependence on a smartphone for most activities, such as providing directions.
它大多数功能依赖iPhone，比如提供导航，是另一个原因。
The firm will sell a mere 8m watches in 2016, generating $4 billion in sales, thinks Toni Sacconaghi of Sanford C.Bernstein, a research firm.
苹果在2016年能销售八百万枚苹果手表，得到40亿美元的销售额。盛博研究公司的分析师托尼•萨科纳吉认为。
One bright spot is Apple’s services business, which is expected to grow steadily.
一个闪光点是苹果的服务业务，预计能稳定地增长。
As it sells more gadgets—over 1 billion devices are in use—it can also sell content and services, and gain revenue from music, its app store and more.
随着苹果卖出更多产品（目前已经有10亿台在使用的设备），它也能提供内容和服务，通过音乐，应用商店之类的获得收入。
In the second quarter Apple had $6 billion in services revenues, more than for Macs or iPads.
在第二季度，苹果的服务收入达到60亿美元，比Mac电脑或iPad的收入都要多。
What else could the firm come up with?
这家公司还能想出什么？
That Apple has been working on an electric car is one of the worst-kept secrets in the technology business.
苹果在研发一款电动汽车。这是科技行业保密性最差的秘密之一。
Reported disagreements with German carmakers over control of users’ data may have halted a potential alliance.
据报道，苹果在管理用户数据方面和德国的汽车厂家的分歧可能已经使得可能的结盟破产。
Many also expected Apple to disrupt television.
许多人也期望苹果能搅动电视市场。
But Apple TV, the firm’s alternative to a set-top box and subscription, sells most shows and films à la carte, which becomes expensive very quickly. Its appeal is limited.
但苹果TV，作为该公司提供的机顶盒和电视订阅服务的替代品，单个出售大多数电视节目和电影。这样使用它就会很昂贵。它的吸引力有限。
The problem, says James McQuivey of Forrester, another research firm, is that it will be difficult for Apple to come up with another single product as central to daily routines as the iPhone.
另一家研究公司，佛瑞斯特公司的分析师麦奎维说，苹果公司的问题在于它很难推出另一款和iPhone一样在日常生活中有着核心地位的产品。
Collections of devices in connected homes will matter more instead.
智能家居会更加重要。
The exception may be augmented reality, but Apple’s rivals already appear to be ahead.
一个例外可能是增强现实，但苹果的对手已经取得领先了。
Apple’s biggest problem is its past success.
苹果最大的问题是它过去的成功。
It is the most valuable company in the world by market capitalisation because investors believe the firm can make new technologies popular.
它是目前世界上市值最高的公司，因为投资者相信，它能推动技术的流行。
Mr Cook, who took over as chief executive in 2011, soon before the death of the firm’s co-founder, Steve Jobs, has led Apple competently.
库克在2011年，公司的联合创始人乔布斯死后，接任了CEO的职务，称职地完成了领导苹果的任务。
But there are lingering doubts about whether he can produce the sort of smash for which Jobs was so feted.
但人们一直对他能否像乔布斯一样推出轰动性的产品持有怀疑。