Apple’s flagship store in Wangfujing, a central shopping district in Beijing, is a hive of activity. But, unfortunately for the iPhone maker¹, most people are not there to buy.

坐落在北京市中心商业区王府井的苹果(Apple)旗舰店人头攒动，但对iPhone的制造商来说，遗憾的是，大多数人来这里并不买手机。

Part of the problem may be short term, according to staff in the shop. Many Chinese are putting off buying an Apple device until the new iPhone 7 model comes out in September, says an employee, who adds that a lull³ in sales before a big launch is to be expected. “There’s no reason for any concern; when the new phone comes out sales will pick up,” he says.

店内员工表示，一部分问题可能是短期的。一位店员表示，许多中国人现在推迟购买苹果设备，要等今年9月iPhone 7上市。他补充称，在推出重大产品前销售停滞是意料之中的。他说：“没有理由担忧；当新手机推出时，销量就会上升。”

Liu Shan, a matronly woman guiding her teenage cousin around the store, is one of the few seemingly in the shop to buy a phone — but even she fails to show the sort of devoted⁴ Apple fandom that made China the company’s largest market outside the US.

刘珊（音译）是一位看似家庭主妇的女士，她带着十几岁的表妹同来。她是店内似乎会买手机的少数人之一，但从她身上看不到“果粉”的那种痴迷——正是这些果粉让中国成为苹果在美国以外的最大市场。

“She’s just a student,” she says of her youthful charge, flicking through a display of iPads, “so there’s no need to wait for an iPhone 7. We’re very pragmatic.”

浏览着iPad的展示画面，刘珊谈到自己的表妹时表示：“她只是个学生，因此没有必要等待iPhone 7上市。我们非常务实。”

This lack of excitement points to the bigger problem Apple faces in China. A drop in revenues in the country by a third last quarter signalled to some that the company’s capacity to dazzle smartphone shoppers has been diminished amid stiffer competition from cheaper local competitors producing more technologically advanced devices.

这种缺乏热情的表现反映出苹果在中国面临更大的问题。上季度苹果在华收入下降三分之一，这让一些人觉得，随着来自产品物美价廉的本土厂商的竞争加剧，苹果让智能手机购买者迷恋的能力下降了。

The fall in sales should not have come as a surprise. Baidu, China’s biggest search engine, used a fall in search queries⁵ as a proxy for foot traffic to Apple stores to correctly predict a 23-34 per cent year-on-year fall in Apple’s quarterly revenues in China.

人们不应对苹果销售下降感到意外。中国最大的搜索引擎百度(Baidu)用搜索查询数量的下降作为苹果商店客流量的晴雨表，正确地预测苹果在华季度收入同比下降23%-34%。

Chinese smartphone users are no longer buying into the hype as they once did. When Apple first launched an iPhone in 2009, the smartphone was a status symbol for young Chinese middle class consumers.

中国智能手机用户不再像过去那样跟风购买。当2009年苹果首次在中国销售iPhone时，拥有一部iPhone是中国年轻的中产阶级消费者有地位的象征。

Apple consolidated its position with the release of several new phones aimed at the local market, briefly⁶ pushing the group to the top of China’s smartphone market last year.

苹果针对中国市场发布了数款新手机，巩固了其地位，去年一度占据中国智能手机市场份额的头把交椅。

But Xiang Ligang, an expert on China’s telecommunications sector, says that Apple now faces a challenge in “keeping itself interesting” in China, namely that the group was “looking like a trend follower these days”.

但中国电信业专家项立刚表示，苹果目前在中国面临“保持自身有趣”的挑战，也就是说该集团“最近看起来就像是潮流跟随者”。

Crucially, local rivals have caught up with, and in some cases exceeded, the sort of technological advances that were once the calling card of the US tech group.

关键问题是，技术上的先进一度是这家美国科技公司的名片，但本土竞争对手已经迎头赶上，在某些情况下还有所超越。

Rumours suggest that the forthcoming iPhone 7 will have a dual-lens camera, for example, but by the time it launches in September “it will look old”, says Mr Xiang.

项立刚表示，比如有传言称，即将发布的iPhone 7将会有双摄像头，但到9月发布时，“这种配置将会显得过时”。

Many competitors already have dual-lens cameras on their newer phones, such as Huawei’s P9 launched in April, and Xiaomi’s Redmi Pro².

许多竞争对手已经在新款手机上配置了双摄像头，比如华为(Huawei)今年4月推出的P9，以及小米(Xiaomi)推出的红米Pro。

“The Chinese phonemakers are fast catching up with Apple in quality and performance, and the consumer mindset is also evolving,” says Mr Xiang. “Some users will always associate Apple with wealth and taste but, for a lot of users, sporting a Huawei or Oppo will no longer cause them to lose face.”

项立刚表示：“中国手机制造商迅速在品质和性能上追赶苹果，消费者心态也在转变。一些用户始终会把苹果与财富和品位联系在一起，但对许多用户来说，拿着华为或Oppo手机将不再让他们感到丢脸。”

Getting China right is important for Apple; until the previous quarter, it was the company’s fastest-growing market.

对苹果来说，搞定中国市场非常重要。截止上季度，中国还是苹果增长最快的市场。

The drop in sales in China has added to Apple’s troubles as it faces a number of setbacks in the country, from a spurious copyright infringement lawsuit — alleging a Chinese company owned the iPhone trademark — to a ban on its iTunes video service.

苹果在中国麻烦缠身，从假冒商标侵权诉讼——起诉一家拥有iPhone商标的中国公司——到iTunes视频服务被禁，而在中国市场销售下降更是雪上加霜。

But devices are core to its success. Apple has ceded ground to Huawei, as well as to relatively unknown brands such as Oppo and Vivo, who took the top three slots respectively in market share rankings for the second quarter, according to Canalys, the research group.

但设备是其成败的关键。苹果已经将部分市场份额拱手让给华为，以及Oppo和Vivo等相对不太出名的品牌。根据市场研究公司Canalys的数据，在今年二季度，华为、Oppo和Vivo分别占据中国市场份额前三甲位置。

Research by Counterpoint Technology, the market research firm, shows that Oppo passed Huawei in the second quarter to become the top-selling smartphone in China, with 22 per cent market share.

市场研究公司Counterpoint Technology的研究显示，Oppo在二季度超过华为，成为中国市场最畅销的智能手机，占据22%的市场份额。

Oppo and Vivo, both largely unknown brands abroad, are both owned by BBK Electronics, based in the southern city of Dongguan.

在国外没什么名气的Oppo和Vivo都隶属总部位于东莞的步步高电子(BBK)旗下。

Apple in the previous quarter came fifth in China, accounting for a market share of 9 per cent, just ahead of Samsung, according to Canalys.

Canalys的数据显示，苹果上季度在中国市场排名第五，占据9%的市场份额，仅领先于三星。

China’s smartphone market grew 3 per cent in the last quarter, according to the group.

该集团表示，中国智能手机市场规模在上季度增长3%。

Research from Piper Jaffray estimated that mainland China accounted for 15 per cent of Apple sales in the quarter, adding that part of the drop can be accounted for by an inventory drawdown and that the numbers “look worse than they are”.

Piper Jaffray在研究报告中估计，苹果上季度销售的15%来自中国内地。该机构补充称，销售下降在一定程度上可以说是去库存造成的，而且数据“看起来比实际情况糟糕”。

Bryan Ma, analyst at IDC, the research firm, says Chinese consumers quickly tire of last year’s, or even last month’s, model. “One of Apple’s problems in China is its product refreshes . . . or lack thereof,” he says.

研究公司IDC的分析师马伯远(Bryan Ma)表示，中国消费者迅速厌烦了去年、乃至上月的机型。他说：“苹果在中国的问题之一是产品更新换代……或者更新换代不力。”

The fickleness of the savvy Chinese consumer has already caused problems for rivals, which have also struggled to stay on top of the China smartphone market. Previous years have seen Samsung and Xiaomi topping the charts at some point only to fall back.

长了见识的中国消费者如今不再忠诚于某个品牌，这已经对竞争对手们造成了问题，后者也很难持续占据中国智能手机市场的榜首位置。一度位列榜首的三星和小米在前几年排名已经下降。

Crucial to staying relevant is to promise something new. Mr Ma says the worry for Apple is that supposedly leaked images of the iPhone 7 appear to show little difference from the iPhone 6S.

贴合市场需求的关键在于承诺推出新产品。马伯远表示，对苹果来说，令人担忧的是，从据说是iPhone 7泄露的照片看，这款手机的外观似乎与iPhone 6S没有多大不同。

“Apple needs to make sure that the next product looks noticeably different from the previous version, as the physical appearance is critical in market such as China where iPhones are viewed as status symbols”.

“苹果需要确保下一款产品看起来与前款产品明显不同，因为在iPhones被视为地位象征的中国等市场，物理外观非常重要。”